Well I think for a contract lawyer the black eye is always monetary. Maybe I should have said kick in the dick.
A 6th in 2025, not even 2024. JT De Brick said yesterday he was shocked there was no interest, not from many teams like the Raiders and others that needed a QB. Apparently the Jets had no interest as well. So it wasn't so much the Steelers brilliance as much as he fell on their laps, as other teams not having any interest. Plus I heard Field’s was not having much interest in the Jets at this point.
In reading the comments the past week or so here about how awful the OL has been (it has), and how bereft of talent we have at WR past G. Wilson (we are), and how terrible Hackett has been, along with Saleh, and the OL Coach Carter, how did anyone expect a young QB to overcome all of that? SMH. The fact that he actually showed improvement this past season, as small as it might've been, should show that he didn't give up when a lot of players would've. Maybe he isn't starter material, or never was, but how can anyone - short of those who watched him first hand in practice and games - really judge that? As dead certain as many here are about him being a bust and not worth anything, and ready to give away assets to get rid of him, who among these are professional evaluators of talent? It would be stupidly compounding the mistakes made in drafting him and screwing up is development to simply give him away for nothing, which is what they'll likely have to do if they insist on moving him right now before the draft, and before T.C.. The best thing they can do is to hold onto him and wait for a some decent compensation to be offered, and worse case keep him as QB#3. He's certainly better than Siemian or any of the other scrubs being talked about for that role.
Still, what a good deal for the Stealers. I think there is a pretty decent chance Fields will beat out Russ eventually. And this gives a great insurance. The best part is that even if he does end up beating him later in the year and plays 49% of snaps, it's only a 6th. And he is only 25 years of age. Heck that could be the entire plan. Start with Russ, and after half the season if he is not amazing, give Fields a chance. If Russ sucks early, which by the way is not that unlikely, Fields is your guy and you pay the 4th. There is lots of upside with Fields. I think it is a good trade and I would have done it too for the Jets.
The only compounding of a mistake would be to keep him on the roster. He a malcontent. He doesn’t want to be here. You really think he’s gonna be thrilled to be running our scout team? He didn’t want to play for us anymore and agreed to finally do so when he was given assurances that we would trade him this year. The hilarity is he’s so friggin worthless that no team will trade for him unless we incent them to do so by giving up picks or money. You’re absolutely right, cutting him now does not make sense for the Jets. Instead they’ll go through to TC. If a desperate team needs a QB then maybe they take Zach off our hands without us having to pay them to do it. If that doesn’t happen then you make Zach one of the last cuts, if not the last cut. But there’s zero chance he’s on our opening day roster. I’m just reading between the lines on how this FO has treated Zach these past 2 seasons. “Go read a book”, “we didn’t have a backup QB on our roster”, “Mike F’n White” tshirts running rampant in the locker room. Personally I think there’s a real disdain for ZW within ownership. Maybe not the players as much, at least not all of them. But this FO has acted like they hate him, and for that I can see them making Zach a last minute cut and limit his options to sign elsewhere except onto a practice squad (where he belongs)
The Zach Wilson "trade talk" stuff is likely just similar to Lazard stuff we saw leaked out this week by the PR team. In that it's the turn-the-page story they are selling to the fans within that. Nobody taking an in-depth look at the possibility, including the Jets, probably believes a trade there is actually going to happen. I been assuming Zach will probably just end up being Metlife's new Kenny Galloway. There but not there.
As far as this: "He didn’t want to play for us anymore and agreed to finally do so when he was given assurances that we would trade him this year." This is not a fact, but a speculation on your part. So after Boyle sucked, Saleh came to Zach and asked him to start. Zach said no, but he will consider if Saleh will assure he will trade him after the season. Saleh assured him he will trade him, then Zach agreed to start. I mean you can make up any story like this and say it is true. Doesn't make it so. What makes more sense is that there were conversations about trading him. Clearly Jets don't view him as a #1 back-up, and he wanted to be traded somewhere he can be. Saleh gave that opportunity though. But if other teams also don't want to take him in a trade, then all bets are off. Paying him not to play is an unreasonable request before the start of the season. A lot depends on whether we draft a talented QB mid rounds. Then I could see a cut earlier. But other than that, we actually agree on something here: wait until training camp and go from there. Once we get to the training camp, it will also be more obvious whether he is a malcontent or a professional.
Just one more tidbit on Russ and Fields. Pitts has them both for combined 4.5 mil this year and a 2025 conditional 6th round pick. That's wild.
Yes if you are running a football team that should be the no. 1 thing to live by in my opinion- anyone that doesn’t want to be here should not be
Like i said in the FA thread the other night imagine what this roster might look like right now had Woody waited a year to fawn all over the backside career of a future HoF QB and their ego. Let's Fly!
Until he is actually released or traded, I don't believe they will get rid of him. The fact that they ever let him on the field after that inept and pathetic performance at home in the rain vs Jacksonville in 2022 says volumes about how stubborn this front office is. They should have cut him that night and taken whatever cap hit they needed to just to get him out of here. A smarter front office would have cut or traded him after the 2022 preseason game that he threw an awful pick and then promptly got hurt on a non contact play. Regardless, until he is actually gone, I won't believe it.
We would most likely have Derek Carr right now, or someone else who would be coming off injury (although may not have been season ending) after getting destroyed by Duane Brown and company of our OL. Whether it is better or not, remains to be seen.
I've said it here often but will say it again - the Jets coaches and Front office don't know anything about the QB position or how to evaluate talent at that position. Not one. I've been saying this on here many times since they signed old man Rodgers. Until they have a savvy coach and Front office guy who understand QB's this shit will continue forever in Jets land. Rodgers is BY FAR the most knowledgeable QB voice in Jets land but the problem with that he'll never want anyone seriously decent to contend with him for the job while he's still playing for us. It's a completely awful mess that only the Jets could find themselves in. Just pray this All-in plan with all these oft-injured guys actually pans out. It's a longshot but it has a chance of working.
IDK that he's a "malcontent". Just because he balked at bailing out Saleh & Co. after they screwed him over doesn't make him a malcontent IMO. In any case, he answered the bell and did his best, despite being mishandled (if not outright mistreated) by the Jets. You might be right though about the dislike of him by Woody and the F.O. - although why would Douglas dislike the guy he made the #2 pick overall? But the decisions that were made from Day 1 around him - allowing LaFleur to install a complicated offense that was almost diametrically the opposite of what he played at BYU; starting him right out of the gate instead of letting him sit and learn, as if to say, "Well hotshot, if you're so great show us"; allowing the Mike F'n White tshirts; the yoyo'ing of starting him, then sitting him, then starting him; and finally Woody's stupid public devaluation of him at the end of the season all show an almost intentional desire to torpedo him by those in charge. And while payers almost never publicly badmouth other players, none of his teammates knocked him as far as we know, even anonymously. IDK what Zach did to piss off so many people, but it's pretty clear he did. And yet, if they decided to keep him as QB#3 if they don't get a decent offer for him, I'm pretty sure he'd suit and show up, and play when called upon. But if he didn't, it's the Jets that deserve that big "Fuck you!", not him. And I'll say it again: my anger at the Jets for screwing Zach up, doesn't negate his part in not being better, whatever that part may be. And it also isn't directed at the Jets only because of Zach, but also because this is what they've done to every promising QB they've had, and until they adopt a real change in philosophy and commitment to developing young QBs, they shouldn't waste any draft picks on one, no matter how badly they need a young FQB.
I totally disagree. I've never read or heard anything that would indicate that he's a malcontent. That's your own supposition. Based on Woody's dumbass comment, I have no doubts that there is real disdain for Zach by ownership. How has the FO acted like they hate him? If they hated him, they wouldn't have let him try to find a trade somewhere. They could have just told him to "suck it up" that he's under contract and they're going to have to pay him anyway, so he will stay and be the #3 QB. Saleh may hate him, but I blame Saleh for much of Zach's troubles. Saleh can go take a flying leap off of a short pier for all I care. He's a phony. The fact that the Jets might make Zach a last minute cut, doesn't mean that they hate him, just that they're being smart. They're going to have to pay him anyway. They might as well keep him and see if they can get something for him. Some team's starter or backup QB could go down for the season in OTAs or early in TC. There could be several teams who have interest if he is cut and they can sign him to a cheap deal, rather than having to give up a draft pick and pay him whatever they'll have to pay him on his current contract. JD has no reason to hate Zach. JD's stupidity and arrogance is what set Zach up to fail, rather than to succeed. JD has only himself to blame for Zach's failure. He either didn't do a good enough job of scouting him and thus shouldn't have drafted him, or not a good enough job of putting Zach in the right position in which he could succeed. But even if you're right that JD does hate Zach, that just shows how petty and small JD is.
Malcontent- someone who is dissatisfied and rebellious. “I want to be traded” = Malcontent. I actually don’t think JD hates him. I think Saleh does not want him on the team and I think Woody clearly has no respect for him. I’m left to ponder the “why’s”, but it’s pretty easy to draw a line from a reports he didn’t want to play for us anymore and reports he will play for us as long as we agree to trade him to the fact he is being shopped and our owner calling him worthless, something Woody has never done before.
