I agree with almost everything you said, especially about the trenches, but in Sauce's case, to me he was one of those 'generational' CB prospects. And in order to get to a championship level, with the way the NFL is now with WRs, a guy to shutdown an opponent's primo WR is priceless. When I heard his name at #4, I was ecstatic... they rarely choose my choices. My only problem with Sauce, is his tackling. He seems to arm-tackle almost exclusively, always trying to pull down players. Never uses his bod. And it looks like the CS isn't addressing it (surprise), since I haven't seen any progress in his tackling. Unfortunately, not addressing players' deficiencies seems to be a hallmark of this CS. .
I can understand how you write this kind of thing so frequently because you tend to disregard everything that doesn't fit into the scenario you already have laid down. First, everyone was most definitely NOT glowing about Wilson before during and after the draft - opinions about his readiness and suitability were all over the board. Why anyone at all puts any kind of major attention in a produced, directed and rehearsed spectacular like a Pro Day is beyond me because it does nothing to replicate game conditions. What happens is a few big throws get a lot of attention and the meat and potatoes of quarterbacking is all but neglected. I don't know about Wilson being over confident but for a guy who had always succeeded at any level he played everyone should have realized that would not automatically convey to the complexity and speed of the NFL. It should have been quickly apparent to everyone involved that the game he now needed to play was a challenge he has, to date, been unable to rise to. I don't give a crap about how "mature" a guy appears at a press conference; he's hired to throw the football, not make speeches. And there are millions of people who do much more critical jobs at the age of 23 than throwing a football; if he's not up to the task maybe he needs to sit on a beach and read a book. The strangest thing about your approach here, though is your repetition time after time that the Jets did nothing to help Wilson develop when Knapp was gone. You totally disregard the fact that LaFleur, Calabrese and Beck (his own guy) were all charged with evaluating Wilson before the draft and mentoring him along the way; what would you have had them do that they did not?
Spot on. The latest attempt to salvage that debacle of wasting the #2 overall pick is to claim that Wilson did not get adequate coaching-- so it was still a sound pick. I really hope the jets don't waste another season trying to justify drafting Wilson that high. Just bringing Zach into training camp next year will create some anxiety and uncertainty amongst Garrett Wilson, Moore, and many of the players. I think many of the players see Zach as a rich, spoiled little kid who won't even admit he let the defense down after another pathetic performance . Good teams admit their errors and move on. Bad teams keep trying to convince themselves they made no error.
The Jets coaching staff probably wasn’t well equipped to develop a young raw rookie. At the same time, the guy can’t hit a shallow crosser in stride. That has nothing to do with coaching.
Richard Todd, Jim Plunkett, Mark Malone, Joey Harrington, Kyle Boller - the list of 1st round QB's that their team could not give up on is a mile long. The reality is that most of the time you know by year two whether they're going to work out and the circumstances that differ are usually unique. Josh Allen takes 10k throws in his second off-season to correct a hitch in his throwing motion that is causing him to overthrow medium range passes. The Steelers come together as an all-time team just in time to catch Terry Bradshaw's yips fading. It takes a lot of luck to get from two year bust to great QB. It's possible to get from two year bust to passable QB, as Todd and Trent Dilfer did, but that's a lot of time invested in getting to passable. Years are years and spending a few of them "developing" a guy who will never be very good is just a waste.
B- - Draft class is phenomenal. But Flacco is useless as a backup. Our o-line was garbage. And those two things solidly held our season back. Sent from my SM-S906U using Tapatalk
I can say the same thing about you, as far as disregarding what doesn't fit your thought processes. Notice all the 'shoulds' in your post. As far as me, you're wrong. I disregard speculation. <--- period. I thought like you for a long time, & could easily have ignored reality, & be mirroring your thought proceses now... but my opinion has changed. Having played numerous sports, & just using my life in general, coaching/mentoring, etc, is so important. When I looked into the resumes of those with the responsibility to develop Zach, there was nothing there. It's like MLF saying the other day, that he thought it may've been better for Zach to sit before hitting the field. Chalk that up to inexperience... now he knows. Would Knapp, or someone with developmental experience, have made the same mistake? Would they have mentored Zach the same way, as the guys that have never developed an NFL QB before? MLF & Calabrese have never played QB in the NFL, nor have they helped develop any NFL QB. They were learning on the job. That's why Knapp was initially brought in, to be Zach's mentor/whisperer. When he died, they didn't replace him. I understand you don't care about maturity, but maturity is maturity. I've seen lots of people fall on hard times, & learn nothing. Zach seems to have dealt with his demotion with grace. He's not in denial, & shows resilience. I don't know if it'll translate onto the field, but it's a positive sign to me, that he hasn't been crushed. And with proper coaching, he may be able to fix himself. At this point, so far, they've been trying to learn what their positions entail, much the same as Zach. If they all had 5+ years to grow together, that may've been a good plan. But that's not the NFL. I know you wouldn't have drafted Zach, if you were in the position to draft a QB, but if your team did, would you have chosen someone without any experience, to try to develop him?? Lastly, you keep speaking of before the draft. We don't know anything other than that the organization reached a consensus to draft Zach. I suspect they knew he was a project. After Knapp died, aside from a short time with Beck last season, they did nothing to replace him. And that void is where they blew it. .
Of course, it might simply be that they've invested a lot on Zach, & the only possible way to get a return on that investment, is to try to get it right. If they don't bring in someone to work with him, & stick with the status quo, I'll agree with you. On the other hand, if they bring him back, with an experienced QB guy to mentor him, then I'll reserve judgement til next season.
B-, awsome signing in Reed and Bam Night, awesome draft class but the offensive line still sucks and still no answer in Qb, but than again not his fault some dumb scout or Woody made him draft the mamoth of a bust Wilson. Still the great trades he pulled of should get him to the end of his 6 year contract. He gotta find a way to fix the line though and get Saleh and Mlf out of here.
We don't know if Zach would have succeeded or not had JD brought in a veteran QB to start the 1st year, had Knapp not died or if they replaced him in the second year, had they given Zach a better OLine really throughout his tenure. Or some real weapons the first year along with better OLine. Or heck, if JD waited for a week and brought in Daboll - the guy who already has a track record of developing a player with similar qualities as Zach. But certainly the things that were done didn't help. The only hope is that that they learned and are better positioned in year 3.
You could make this a lot easier if you'd leave an open line between paragraphs rather than just starting new sentences - thanks. You did say that "everyone" agreed on drafting Wilson which is far from accurate. I was one of the people here who identified the huge gap between the competition Wilson was facing in a Covid season at BYU and what he'd face in the NFL. You think that doesn't fit my thought process, but you're the one who wrote it here. I know exactly why Knapp was hired but he's not here; even after agreeing on that point you still haven't said how he could have better been replaced - they threw three guys at him. At least don't keep repeating the idea that they didn't try to replace him. Beck was highly regarded and was already working with Wilson so he was a natural choice to put on full time not just a "short time"; why he's no longer involved is a mystery but a lot of what goes on at the Jets, particularly with the offense is a mystery. I have more questions about Wilson's coaching now than I had when he was drafted. Is it possible he's not a very good pupil? Do you really have a problem with the use of the word "should"? Do you not agree that everyone involved in the drafting and preparation of Wilson should have understood he wasn't ready for prime time? Do you think he should have started last year? Should it have taken two seasons for LaFleur and apparently Saleh to realize Wilson wasn't ready? That's the reality I saw with Wilson and I did not ignore it. You claim not to speculate but right here you talk about Wilson's grace, resilience, lack of denial, not being crushed, the ability to fix himself - you even have speculated that you know how I thought when all this was going on. You say I don't care about maturity but nothing could be farther from the truth. But maturity is definitely something the team should have known about Wilson before he was drafted and I make no apology for using that word. Maturity often has nothing to do with how long a person has been alive so the constant repetition here by some that he is a 23 year old kid falls on deaf ears for me. If the guy was not emotionally ready to be a quarterback in the NFL why was he drafted? Why was he put on the field?
Sure sound like those now claiming Zach was not properly "mentored" believe that Zach turns into a pro bowler with just a little better coaching. To me, that is the ultimate denial that Douglas wasted that pick. Sure, IFFFFFF Zach had gotten better coaching, everything would be fine. Was Zach on a desert island at training camp, then last summer, and then at every practice during the year? I thought the jets HAD a QB coach and an offensive coordinator during Zach's two piss-poor years with the jets. So, now it 's all their fault Zach is no good. Zach probably believed that too when he would not take any responsibility in post-games interviews. Let's never admit that Zach Wilson was a horseshit draft pick at #2 overall -Let's keep telling ourselves there is some other explanation why Zach stinks.
No, Douglas still wasted the pick. Whatever circumstances are around coaching, he hired the coach also. So, Douglas is fully responsible for wasting #2 overall pick, which is an enormous failure on his part, no way to sugar coat it really.
I gave him a B, I feel Saleh and his CS are the biggest reason the Jets are still sputtering. Jacksonville fired Meyers and hired a good HC and they turned it around in a year. The Jets have talent that’s being squandered by Saleh and his CS. 7-4 with a chance to make playoffs and a couple of injuries happen and team implodes. Problem is if JD fires Saleh and staff, he needs to hire someone who is married to the same systems Jets are using on offense and defense, otherwise most players drafted might not be suitable for a 3-4 defense, or none zone blocking scheme.
Fuck it, I'm changing Douglas's grade to a D because he was the one guy who could have gotten us to tank for Trevor, and he didn't. Either he's a "wINniNG CuLTuRe" meathead, or he actually thought Zach was as good as Trevor. Either way, screw him. 2022 draft keeps him from getting an F.
I distinctly remember JD stating that you win in the trebches... well Joe, according to the following info you failed miserabily. Injurues are part of the game and we have had more then our share but come on some of this stuff is starlling, at lest to me. https://www.yardbarker.com/nfl/arti..._offensive_line_in_shambles/s1_16703_38328227 JD screwed the pooch with respect to the OL... check this info out gents: the offensive lines Douglas has built, that has surrendered the third-most sacks (190) in the league since he took over. Think about that.... and then add this: Douglas only spent 4/26 selections on offensive linemen in his first three drafts? If that doesn't piss you off , then there is this.... Out of New York's 18 offensive linemen who were under contract with the team in 2022, 13 of their contracts are set to expire: George Fant (OT), Mike Remmers (OT), Cedric Ogbuehi (OT), Greg Senat (OT), Adam Pankey (OT), Sam Schlueter (OT), Dan Feeney (OG), Nate Herbig (OG), Laurent Duvernay-Tardif (OG), Dru Samia (OG), Chris Glaser (OG), Eric Smith (OG) and Connor McGovern are all free agents. Even at 2022 market price, these 18 salaries totaled $26,035,833 (spotrac.com). New York currently has $15,877,943 of projected cap space in 2023. That's a deficit of $10,157,890. That's even if Douglas could bring them all back at the exact same deals next season and that's only to field an offensive line that's given up the 11th most sacks in the NFL in 2022 (42). The only five offensive linemen Douglas has under contract for 2023 are: Max Mitchell (non-football injury list) Mekhi Becton (injured reserve) Alijah Vera-Tucker (injured reserve) Duane Brown (injured reserve) Laken Tomlinson What this means is that he will probably spend the draft picking OL personnel because FA will be to pricey or if they do go there then it maybe low rent
No one was on the Trevor train last year when he was playing like garbage under Urban Meyers, absolutely no one.
