And to expand on my point about winning the trust of his teammates, relative to your point in bold: before Zach can win anyone's trust, he first has to win his own. Once you've lost your self confidence it can be very difficult, sometimes impossible, to get it back.
1. They weren't revolting against Mike LaFleur, they were revolting against a quarterback that clearly sucked. 2. The only thing Trevor Lawrence and Justin Herbert have in common with zach wilson is that they are young. He can't even (and doesn't deserve to) hold their jocks. 3. If zach was playing to try and not make mistakes, he did a pretty shitty job at it. Mistakes are more than int's and fumbles. Note to zack wilson...missing wide open guys all over the field and throwing lasers to guys 5 yards away are mistakes, too. 4. He did great in the 1st quarter of the Jags game, leading the jets to 3 points and going backwards on a drive that started deep in jags territory. Good thing we had him in that quarter!!
That's one simple answer. Simple answers are, of course, often dependent upon the answer you're looking for. Another simple answer is, he was the worst in that system, which wasn't designed around him, & forced him to do things he was uncomfortable doing at this point in his career. I'm sure there are other simple answers. .
Salen should have never started Zach again after White got hurt. And he doubled down on stupid again when he put White back in while he was still injured. All gas... no brains.
The interesting thing to me, when all the temper tantrums on the field, requests for trades, strange quotes about the offense, etc, were happening, my initial read was MLF. Of course, later, the 'Zach sucks 4ever' crowd latched on, & it was all about Zach. Who knows what really went on, probably some of both, but whatever the case, I have never seen a more undisciplined mess, than what went on this season. That was on MLF, especially if MLF was feeding it, as that article suggests, but moreso on Saleh, for letting it happen... & either ignoring it, or being clueless that it was happening. Leads me, more & more, to want to blow up the whole CS now, rather than waiting til next season's end, & wasting another season with an undisciplined coach. .
The only thing I don't fully agree with is the idea of blowing it all up now. We're closer than we've been at least since Rex, and IMO, maybe closer. Get a good OC and QB Coach and OL Coach, fix the OL, find a QB to at least get through next season, and maybe even see the resurrection of Zach, not to mention the return of Breece Hall (although IDT he'll be back at 100% next year). These are all reasonable things that could happen, and if they do, making the playoffs should be almost certain barring more big injuries. Of course, it's also true that next year they'll have to start over again, but I hope not.
Yup, JD shoulda quashed that from the start. I know that the NFL is nepo central but having your best friends brother, who has no experience calling plays, as your right hand man was never going to work long term.
Hell, I was hopeful like halfway through the year. Once the Moore stuff happened I knew I wanted him gone though.
I agree with you, but those discipline issues really disrupted the team, & seems to have divided the team into camps. And notice, that's exactly when the team fell apart. Saleh let everything get away from him, & I don't think, even now, Saleh realizes he needs to bring the team together. In his cliche world, everything is rosy. So far, it seems the D kept some distance from the mess, & that's my only hope with Saleh... that it stays an O issue, & a new OC & staff will right the players, & get them playing together again, with or without Saleh's help. .
Saleh = Luis Rojas...it's amazing the parallels between this Jet season and two years ago with the Mets when Rojas just let the inmates run the asylum with the thumbs down bullshit, the rat/racoon fight, etc. Both nice men, both just pitifully over their heads.
1. Shouldn't the Offensive Coordinator be campaigning for a QB change when the quarterback is failing at his job? 2. Isn't urging the head coach to put the best player available on the field at every position a big part of the OC job? 3. Isn't winning games for the team more important than helping to develop a single player?
1.If the OC feels he has done everything he possibly can to allow the QB to succeed and is convinced he can't, then expressing this privately to his bosses would be the right approach. And if his bosses told him "Too bad, you need to make this work." He could then either get more creative in trying to make it work, or resign. What he can't do is make his assessment and dissatisfaction public and create divisions within the team. 2. There's no problem in telling the HC who the OC thinks are the BPAs for the scheme he wants to run, but the GM and HC are also responsible for both short term and long term results. This means that while one QB may be better than another in the short term, the less ready QB may be better in the long term. 3. Related to #2 - The QB is by far the most important single player on the team. And when you use the #2 overall pick on that player you've made a committed investment in the success of that player. There are times and situations where winning some games takes a back seat to developing that one player, because the expectation is that over the long run they will win many more games if that player succeeds. This is why it was a huge gamble for Douglas to take Wilson - this is what that investment meant. And Saleh - and supposedly MLF - were fully on board with that gamble. If they weren't they should've quit. Douglas did his due diligence on the QB situation, including whether to keep Darnold, and researching the other available QBs, both FAs and draftees, and concluded that Zach was his best chance for building a long term winner. While there are many who question that decision now, it doesn't change the fact that Douglas has already tied a major portion of his reputation to Wilson. If push comes to shove - as it did with LaFleur - it's not Wilson that will be sent away unless Douglas either: A) Finds a willing team that will give him enough value to "save face" for that pick; or B) Wilson proves to him beyond any doubt that he can't be a FQB for the Jets and Douglas is then forced to admit his mistake and hope he gets to keep his job. So to put a fine point on my answer to your questions, Wilson's development is a major priority for Douglas and Woody. It may not supersede winning, but it's a close second, and an OC (or HC) who bitches and moans about that, and especially who does so outside the chain of command thus undermining Zach's development and causing divisions in the team is going to be gone.
1)if this is the case that JD & Woody are going to demand that Zach is the future, we are screwed. 2) thinking that a coach is going to resign or quit a multi-million dollar position because of "making the QB work" is utterly laughable. There are 32 nfl teams -- that is already a highly competitive case to get an OC job 3) If JD & Woody are going to make developing Zach a major priority, then our OC job is probably the least attractive to any candidates. A QB who has terrible NFL tape and stats not dissimilar to the Jamarcus Russell level bust being determined as the future is not going to lure a lot. Especially because it feels like a playoff mandate year coming up for Saleh.
I didn't say that I expect an OC to quit if he can't - or won't - make a QB work, I said that he should have quit if that was his attitude. Of course most people wouldn't have the integrity to quit and forego that much money, but still it would've been the right thing to do. As to your 3rd point, it seems to contradict what you said here: "There are 32 nfl teams -- that is already a highly competitive case to get an OC job" If a guy has confidence in himself he might well relish the challenge. I'll refer you to the stat line that @rscherwin posted on Steve Youn's first two years in the NFL with Tampa Bay who drafted him. Worse than Zach's, and yet after a stint in the USFL the 49'ers took him to be an understudy to Montana who he sat behind for over 3 years before finally getting a chance to start. How did they resurrect such a clear bust? So it can be done if the right people do it and the QB has the talent and puts the effort in. What's not clear at all is can the Jets and Wilson do it?
1. I must have missed it - when was LaFleur campaigning publicly for a QB change; pretty sure I would have seen something about it when it happened? 2. So the OC is fine telling the HC which guy is best suited to be on the field to win games. So, what's the problem? 3. The team always takes precedent over individuals, particularly those who cannot perform to their expectations. You reached a brief moment of reality when Wilson eventually collapsed completely and even publicly quit on him but after not seeing his awful performances for a couple of weeks you went back to the suspended state of reality and now you're back searching for someone, other than Wilson of course, to blame his miserable showing for. Why not wait until he becomes half the player you expected him to be before relieving him of all responsibility for his own failings?
He and the other zach truthers need to watch that jags game again to remember just how historically bad he was. He may have had worse statistical games, but that game was ineptitude at its finest. Why does it have to be someone else's fault that this kid sucks? Why do they keep looking to blame the organization? Blame them for whiffing on the pick, but not for the kid sucking.
