CIMINI: ZACH WILSON CLEARS AWESOME HURDLE

[flgreen]

Rich Cimini, ESPN Staff Writer4h

Zach Wilson clears 'awesome' hurdle in sprint to New York Jets' starting job

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. -- Rookie Zach Wilson is the front-runner in the New York Jets' quarterback competition. He has a slim lead over former BYU star Zach Wilson.

Yeah, it's a one-man show.

Everybody knew that when the Jets drafted him No. 2 overall and nothing has changed. New York cleared a wide path to the starting job -- no veteran additions to the quarterback room -- and now it's all about getting Wilson ready for Sept. 12 against the Carolina Panthers.

Experts can debate the pros and cons of throwing a rookie into the fire. The Jets, who did it with Sam Darnold (2018), Geno Smith (2013) and Mark Sanchez (2009), are committed to being a Zach Pack in Week 1. They spent the past four weeks (a dozen practices) feeding his brain with information, testing his recall and his mettle.

He passed.

"It's been a learning curve for him," Jets offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur said. "We've thrown a ton at him. I thought these last two weeks have been awesome for him. We've done so many call-it periods where he doesn't have the script. He just has to hear me through the walkie-talkie and make sure he calls it correctly and gets everybody aligned."

An unscripted period is when the offensive coaches don't know the defensive call -- and vice versa -- thus creating game-like spontaneity. Naturally, it's more challenging for the quarterback, especially a rookie. Wilson experienced a few hiccups, but there were no total meltdowns, at least not in the practices that were open to the media.

That's an encouraging sign.

On Tuesday and Wednesday in minicamp, Wilson showed an aggressive side, throwing downfield more than usual. That wasn't by design; it happened organically. He noticed the defense was sitting on short routes, so he countered by going deep.

Wilson also made a subtle adjustment in red zone periods. In earlier practices, his five-step drop was too slow. Things happen fast in the red zone, and the timing between the quarterback and the wide receivers has to be in sync or else the play will be out of whack. Without prodding from the coaches, Wilson quickened the tempo on his five-step drop, demonstrating an innate feel for the game.

"Pretty cool to watch," LaFleur said.

These were only baby steps, of course. They were non-contact drills with no pads, so Wilson didn't have to worry about getting blindsided by a quarterback-hungry blitzer. Things will pick up in training camp, then a little more in the preseason games. He should pass those tests easily, considering he was the second pick in the draft. If he doesn't -- sound the alarms. In reality, an accurate read won't happen until the regular season.

"Zach loves ball, that's one thing I've learned," Jets coach Robert Saleh said. "He's unflappable in the sense that he doesn't care whether [it] went good or bad. He wants to know why it went good or bad. He wants to learn from it. He's wired exactly the way you want all players to be wired. Now it's a matter of getting as many reps as possible [in training camp]."

Wilson and 2021 No. 1 overall draft pick Trevor Lawrence (Jacksonville Jaguars) are expected to be the only rookies to start in Week 1. The other first-round quarterback picks -- Trey Lance (San Francisco 49ers), Justin Fields (Chicago Bears) and Mac Jones (New England Patriots) -- are behind seasoned veterans. The Jets decided against that route, in part to give Wilson a chance to establish himself among teammates in the offseason.

"He's going to be a problem [for defenses]," Jets tackle Mekhi Becton said. "He's really good."

New York guard Greg Van Roten said, "I've been impressed. You hear a lot of hype about guys coming out of college and going through the draft process. You get in front of them and you see they're just normal guys, just human beings. Zach is definitely somebody that makes throws that you raise your eyebrow."

Wilson played in a similar offense at BYU, which has helped the transition, but he admitted there are times when the playbook seems like it's written in Latin and things get moving so fast that it's hard to separate the good days from the bad days.

"It's hard to say exactly how you did," Wilson said. "Personally, in my eyes, I feel I can improve every single day. I feel like I'm learning something every single day. Even on the good days, it's still frustrating, and it's just because it's like a foreign language. Every single day it's the same plays, but you're getting different reps, different looks at it, different defensive coverages."

Since 2008, 16 of the 35 quarterbacks drafted in the top 10 were opening-day starters, most recently Joe Burrow (Cincinnati Bengals), Kyler Murray (Arizona Cardinals) and Darnold, Wilson's predecessor. Barring injury, Wilson will join that list. Now it's a race against the calendar to get him as ready as possible.

[Larz]

[flgreen]

Must have killed Cimini having to write a complementary article on a Jets QB.

Wilson didn't really leave him much choice.  

[Ian Fleming]

American society’s phraseological obsession with hyperbole distorts reality and undermines expectations. Everything is “awesome”, “the greatest”, “best ever”, “epic”, etc.

If Wilson has already been anointed among the greatest starting QBs in Jets history, then how bad will the reaction be when he makes his rookie mistakes?  
 

An Impatient fan base, a press willing to stoke the flames and all held hostage to the most vocal hyperbolic social media influencers is a toxic combination that can undermine the coaching regime, let alone Wilson’s development ASAP.

[Warfish]

1 minute ago, flgreen said:

Must have killed Cimini having to write a complementary article on a Jets QB.

Wilson didn't really leave him much choice.  

Some of you sure do seem to suffer from persecution complex. 

Cimini is a decent writer, he writes positive when warranted (or needed to sell ads), and writes negative when warranted (or to piss off Jets Fans in order to sell Ads).

The fact the Jets have given us vastly more bad to write about than good over the last decade isn't on Cimini.

[RutgersJetFan]

It's early and I haven't had my full dose of coffee yet but I expected a video of him jumping over an actual hurdle and now that I have read this stupid article I'm really pissed this wasn't actually that.

[BigRy56]

If JD hits on ZW and this draft he’ll be here for the next decade, at least 

[jgb]

32 minutes ago, Warfish said:

Some of you sure do seem to suffer from persecution complex. 

Cimini is a decent writer, he writes positive when warranted (or needed to sell ads), and writes negative when warranted (or to piss off Jets Fans in order to sell Ads).

The fact the Jets have given us vastly more bad to write about than good over the last decade isn't on Cimini.

Everyone is the hero of their own story. And there can't be heroes without villains. If there are none to be found, they must be manufactured.

[JetFreak89]

I honestly thought the article was going to be about Zach Wilson being able to complete a press conference without using the word "awesome" 10 times, unlike Sam Darnold. Would it be a ridiculous and uninformative article? Yes. Would it fit right in with 90% of other sports articles coming out of the media recently? Also yes. 

[Jet Nut]

50 minutes ago, Warfish said:

Some of you sure do seem to suffer from persecution complex. 

Cimini is a decent writer, he writes positive when warranted (or needed to sell ads), and writes negative when warranted (or to piss off Jets Fans in order to sell Ads).

The fact the Jets have given us vastly more bad to write about than good over the last decade isn't on Cimini.

Have to say, Cimini has been covering the Jets since the early 90s I believe, with Newsday and he's always taken the  negative angle.  He was negative through the good and bad.  

[Jet Nut]

15 minutes ago, JetFreak89 said:

I honestly thought the article was going to be about Zach Wilson being able to complete a press conference without using the word "awesome" 10 times, unlike Sam Darnold. Would it be a ridiculous and uninformative article? Yes. Would it fit right in with 90% of other sports articles coming out of the media recently? Also yes. 

Every Darnold sentence began with Yeah

[Sarge4Tide]

[Larz]

1 hour ago, Ian Fleming said:

American society’s phraseological obsession with hyperbole distorts reality and undermines expectations. Everything is “awesome”, “the greatest”, “best ever”, “epic”, etc.

If Wilson has already been anointed among the greatest starting QBs in Jets history, then how bad will the reaction be when he makes his rookie mistakes?  
 

An Impatient fan base, a press willing to stoke the flames and all held hostage to the most vocal hyperbolic social media influencers is a toxic combination that can undermine the coaching regime, let alone Wilson’s development ASAP.

Except nobody has said that about Wilson 

[Jet2020]

1 hour ago, flgreen said:

Must have killed Cimini having to write a complementary article on a Jets QB.

Wilson didn't really leave him much choice.  

That’s so true, because Cimini has been wrong criticizing all the Jets QBs since Favre in Week 12, 2008. 

[GreenFish]

39 minutes ago, Jet Nut said:

Have to say, Cimini has been covering the Jets since the early 90s I believe, with Newsday and he's always taken the  negative angle.  He was negative through the good and bad.  

Was he negative during the Tuna years? I was too young and just watched the games. So I have no idea what the media coverage was like back then.

In recent year’s he hasn’t been wrong though. We’ve sucked for a while now. Even when we were good under Rex, our team was the kind of team non-Jets fans would hate.

[Fantasy Island]

1 hour ago, Ian Fleming said:

American society’s phraseological obsession with hyperbole distorts reality and undermines expectations. Everything is “awesome”, “the greatest”, “best ever”, “epic”, etc.

If Wilson has already been anointed among the greatest starting QBs in Jets history, then how bad will the reaction be when he makes his rookie mistakes?  
 

An Impatient fan base, a press willing to stoke the flames and all held hostage to the most vocal hyperbolic social media influencers is a toxic combination that can undermine the coaching regime, let alone Wilson’s development ASAP.

[docdhc]

1 hour ago, Ian Fleming said:

American society’s phraseological obsession with hyperbole distorts reality and undermines expectations. Everything is “awesome”, “the greatest”, “best ever”, “epic”, etc.

If Wilson has already been anointed among the greatest starting QBs in Jets history, then how bad will the reaction be when he makes his rookie mistakes?  
 

An Impatient fan base, a press willing to stoke the flames and all held hostage to the most vocal hyperbolic social media influencers is a toxic combination that can undermine the coaching regime, let alone Wilson’s development ASAP.

I don’t know. That’s a pretty deep analysis. I think it’s more simple and just depends on if they win. If the Jets show real improvement the fan base will be fine and he’s following 2-14 so expectations are low to begin with. I don’t think the noise in the press or social media will affect his development or the coaching staff one way or the other. 

[Legend Killa7]

Every Darnold sentence began with Yeah

I am not trying to start something here- and know that I am thrilled with Wilson- but Zach also starts every answer with “yeah”.

The thing with Sam was that he said “umm” like a bunch of times every time he spoke, and I am almost positive he actually began each response with “sure” instead of “yeah”. Every player has their own little “pause word” which is fine but I do notice (so far anyway) that Wilson says “umm” throughout his answers a lot less than Sam did.


Sent from my iPhone using JetNation.com mobile app

[GangGreened]

Typical off season fluff - heard all the praises for Sanchez and Darnold.

I’ll get excited when I see him throwing touchdowns in September. I do like the Jets new approach to actually put a line and some decent WRs around him though.

[Paradis]

3 hours ago, flgreen said:

Wilson also made a subtle adjustment in red zone periods. In earlier practices, his five-step drop was too slow. Things happen fast in the red zone, and the timing between the quarterback and the wide receivers has to be in sync or else the play will be out of whack. Without prodding from the coaches, Wilson quickened the tempo on his five-step drop, demonstrating an innate feel for the game.

 

I came a little. 

[Jetsfan80]

https://www.nfl.com/news/jets-encouraged-by-zach-wilson-s-desire-to-master-offense-following-first-minica

 

Jets encouraged by Zach Wilson's desire to master offense following first minicamp

Published: Jun 18, 2021 at 12:35 PM

 

Nick Shook

Around The NFL Writer

 

Becoming an NFL quarterback isn't as simple as being drafted and putting on a helmet.

Zach Wilson has learned this valuable lesson in his first few weeks of work as a New York Jet. It's not an easy task, of course, but Wilson isn't shying from the challenge. He's also not keeping the difficulty of it hidden.

"It's hard to say exactly how you did," Wilson said when asked about his performance following the conclusion of Jets minicamp, via the Associated Press. "Personally, in my eyes, I feel I can improve every single day. I feel like I'm learning something every single day. Even on the good days, it's still frustrating and it's just because it's like a foreign language. Every single day it's the same plays, but you're getting different reps, different looks at it, different defensive coverages, whatever it is."

The sheer amount of information might be overwhelming to most, but as Wilson is quickly realizing, the reps in June are even more important mentally than physically. Wilson knows how to throw a football -- quite well, in fact -- however, he still needs to learn how to diagnose every possible coverage he might face, and execute accordingly at the premier speed of an NFL game.

The Jets aren't giving a single thought to the use of mental training wheels, throwing Wilson into the controlled burn that is minicamp. It's not easy, but is essential if New York wants the No. 2 overall pick to blossom into the franchise quarterback they never quite saw in Sam Darnold.

It's painful to swing and miss once under center. It's not an option the second time around.

"It's been a learning curve for him," offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur said. "We've thrown a lot at him."

With no kid gloves available, Wilson has impressed his coaches with how he's handled their manufactured adversity. He hasn't always had the security of a play script, occasionally being directed to lead the offense through a period in which he's in charge of calling plays.

Wilson hasn't even had the playbook for two months. Yet, as LaFleur said, he's done a "really good job" in these instances thanks to investing plenty of time into digesting the offense.

It's the result of a character trait the Jets have identified in Wilson, one that has them convinced they made the right decision in April.

"Zach loves ball, that's one thing that I've learned," head coach Robert Saleh said. "He's unflappable in the sense that he doesn't care whether something went good or bad, he wants to know why it went good or bad. He wants to learn from it. He is wired exactly the way you want all players to be wired.

"So now it's just a matter of him getting as many reps as possible, to go into as many situations as possible, to see how much he can get better."

Wilson will get plenty of reps this summer in Jets training camp. The hope is by the time September arrives, he'll be mentally equipped to handle the responsibility of a starting NFL quarterback.

If anything, Wilson is certainly willing to put in the work.

[Beerfish]

But can he jump out of swimming pool, that is the question.

[JohnnyLV]

25 minutes ago, Legend Killa7 said:

I am not trying to start something here- and know that I am thrilled with Wilson- but Zach also starts every answer with “yeah”.

The thing with Sam was that he said “umm” like a bunch of times every time he spoke, and I am almost positive he actually began each response with “sure” instead of “yeah”. Every player has their own little “pause word” which is fine but I do notice (so far anyway) that Wilson says “umm” throughout his answers a lot less than Sam did.


Sent from my iPhone using JetNation.com mobile app

Some sales techniques teach you are set of phrases to say right after questions so you dont say ummm.

Zach is doing really well so far

[Grandy]

Encouraging stuff so far. Seems like he's carrying himself, and playing like a veteran so far. 

Seeing him hold his own with the 1's against the 1's is awesome when the biggest concern with him from many was competition in college.

[jetstream23]

2 hours ago, flgreen said:

Must have killed Cimini having to write a complementary article on a Jets QB.

Wilson didn't really leave him much choice.  

I'll say this about Cimini, he's gotten better over the years.   I wasn't a big fan of his 5-10 year ago, certainly before his ESPN days.  Kinda lumped him in with the group of "hack reporters" who work here locally and kinda seem like ambulance chasing lawyers when it comes to information.  But again, with that said, Cimini has come a long way in my eyes.  He's typically writing about the things I want to hear as a Jets fan and he's very readable.

[jetstream23]

25 minutes ago, Jetsfan80 said:

Jets encouraged by Zach Wilson's desire to master offense following first minicamp

 

 

[flgreen]

10 minutes ago, jetstream23 said:

I'll say this about Cimini, he's gotten better over the years.   I wasn't a big fan of his 5-10 year ago, certainly before his ESPN days.  Kinda lumped him in with the group of "hack reporters" who work here locally and kinda seem like ambulance chasing lawyers when it comes to information.  But again, with that said, Cimini has come a long way in my eyes.  He's typically writing about the things I want to hear as a Jets fan and he's very readable.

Actually agree with this.  Cimini is still snarky toward the Jets, but his content has gotten better since he has worked for ESPN.

When he was with the NYDN he was the worst of all the "rip the team to pieces" NY scribes.  Of course Manish Mehta made him look like a Homer.  LOL  Mehta wasn't really that bad until he got to the NYDN

Now the NYDN has gone and hired a Dolphins fan to cover the Jets. Can't wait to see how that is going to go over time.

Think perhaps the NYDN editorial policy toward the Jets is the real problem.   

[Jet Nut]

1 hour ago, GreenFish said:

Was he negative during the Tuna years? I was too young and just watched the games. So I have no idea what the media coverage was like back then.

In recent year’s he hasn’t been wrong though. We’ve sucked for a while now. Even when we were good under Rex, our team was the kind of team non-Jets fans would hate.

Always was negative, even when it was hard to be negative it all had that tinge 

[Jet Nut]

1 hour ago, Paradis said:

I came a little. 

Liar, you wet the bed

[Matt39]

Cimini being mildly impressed is a fantastic sign.

[Matt39]

1 hour ago, jetstream23 said:

I'll say this about Cimini, he's gotten better over the years.   I wasn't a big fan of his 5-10 year ago, certainly before his ESPN days.  Kinda lumped him in with the group of "hack reporters" who work here locally and kinda seem like ambulance chasing lawyers when it comes to information.  But again, with that said, Cimini has come a long way in my eyes.  He's typically writing about the things I want to hear as a Jets fan and he's very readable.

He’s the pump the brakes guy(and how can you blame him) but out of the current beat team his Sunday columns always have the most interesting nuggets

[Jetsfan80]

2 hours ago, Beerfish said:

But can he jump out of swimming pool, that is the question.

Absolutely not.

 

 

 

Swimming pools mess up his hair.  

[Paradis]

5 hours ago, Jet Nut said:

Liar, you wet the bed

 

[sourceworx]

6 hours ago, Paradis said:

I came a little. 

Same here. That gave me a tingle in my undercarriage.

[JetsRay]

10 hours ago, Warfish said:

Some of you sure do seem to suffer from persecution complex. 

Cimini is a decent writer, he writes positive when warranted (or needed to sell ads), and writes negative when warranted (or to piss off Jets Fans in order to sell Ads).

The fact the Jets have given us vastly more bad to write about than good over the last decade isn't on Cimini.

Cimini is a douche period!

And yes, he's a good writer, but a douche!