If he’s at that point then he’s completely doomed and I’m not sure why you think he’s salvageable. Burrow is a good example. Roethlisberger for his entire career as well. They get hit a ton and it doesn’t force them out of the pocket because they’re gun shy.
ZW pre-draft analysis looks like it was an "emperor has no clothes" moment. How do we use the 2nd pick on a guy with such a lack of QB fundamentals? That's beyond the stats--Trevor isn't tearing it up but no-one is saying his footwork sucks etc.
I don't think he's permanently at this point yet. I'm just saying that just because he gets a clean pocket even 60% of the time doesn't mean that he's not going to be affected by the unchecked pass rush from the other 40% of times. But if this isn't fixed soon, then yeah, it could get worse. As for comparing him to Burrow or Roethlisberger, I haven't watched enough of either to say whether the circumstances are the same.
I agree with you. Either way, it’s an inexperienced QB going up against a top tier defense. Personally, I think we’re going to see Zach play all 4 quarters, barring an injury. The results are going to be exactly what you’re thinking. We really don’t have a great alternative.
The key to me is that Zach keeps making the same mistakes. He made similar mistakes in college, but it's amplified tenfold in the NFL. So, the question is, is Zach a moron? If he is, then give up on him now. If he's not a moron, then where's the next place to look for a fix? So far, the coaches don't have an answer. To me, the answer is clear. A start was what Saleh said yesterday... that Zach will handle every snap the rest of the season, barring injury. In other words, he needs to play, to learn from his mistakes. The next thing, I'm not seeing... bring in a coach, who's successfully developed QBs, or an experienced QB, to work with Zach every day. Calabrese has never developed a QB, & had only 2 years NFL experience, & that was as a quality-control coach. Just because he was QB at the same HS (IIRC), as Boomer Esiason, does not a QB coach make! Until they bring in a qualified voice in Zach's ear, how can we expect anything different? Someone needs to teach him how to become an NFL QB. If not, he'll always fall back to what he knows from college, where he was able to get away with what he can't in the NFL.
I think a bit too much is made of QB fundamentals at times. Wilson’s fundamentals in the pocket aren’t bad from an the perspective of his body being in sync to throw passes. He just doesn’t have natural touch on his throws although that can be developed as there’s a better understanding of where the receivers will be in correlation with the defenders. Outside of the pocket, his fundamentals aren’t very good, but meh, a lot of QBs fundamentals aren’t very good outside the pocket - at least in the areas of the field that he’s ended up at. The most concerning thing is the sheer lack of pocket presence. And I think this goes back to a lot of my criticisms of him at BYU on that he was rarely pressured (played bottom tier G5 teams) and when he was pressured, he just threw bombs to open receivers. I don’t really think pocket presence can be taught or learned.
You make great points like usual. I'm concerned about the spacing of his feet and his falling away motion when I talk about footwork. His lack of pocket awareness/behavior is just scary. As you imply, all this stuff can be overcome with a unique QB who brings unorthodox techniques to the position--but these are exceptional cases and a huge roll of the dice when drafting. I don't think the NYJ scouting thought they were taking a big chance on hitting the jackpot with an unorthodox QB. IMO they just did not evaluate properly and why not is an open question that can be debated.
Most successful QB's don't develop at the NFL level. They develop in college and maybe have a half dozen games of the yips the first year and then they are a functional NFL QB. As Jets fans we have very poor perspective on this because the Jets can't draft QB's for their life. I mean we've had a half dozen hideous prospects taken in the 1st or 2nd round since Chad was on the way out and so we just assume that it's unusual for somebody to succeed fairly quickly when in fact on most teams they are good or gone fairly quickly. For us a QB draft is like a death march of three+ seasons to the next regime.
100% on the money. We have a horrible tradition of hardly ever bringing in the talent in house to develop QBs properly from the get go, be it Geno, Sanchez, Sam. You name it. We don’t have a QB savvy guru that can help this kid dissect film and learn from his mistakes, reads, pocket presence, footwork, and correcting the bad habits that have plagued his progress. I also think MLF resisted that in the past, He wants to be the only voice in Zach’s ear. Bad mistake if true.
