Douglas talks a little Zach

[slats]

Joe Douglas ponders how the Jets could have handled Zach Wilson’s rookie year differently

Posted by Mike Florio on May 13, 2023, 9:53 AM EDT

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The Jets used the second overall pick in 2021 on quarterback Zach Wilson. They continue to hold out hope that Wilson will develop into the player that they, and many others, thought he would be.

The plan going forward is simple — Wilson learns from Aaron Rodgers, and potentially gets another chance to play, down the road.

But Douglas is willing to look back at how the Wilson experiment went wrong, if for no reason other than to handle a similar situation better in the future.

“I go back and I look at a lot of things and things that can be done differently, things that were in our control, out of our control,” G.M. Joe Douglas said in an appearance on #PFTPM. “And every situation’s different. I feel like in today’s NFL, when you take a quarterback in the first round, and you take a quarterback high, time’s against you. And you need to see what you have so you can make a decision in that four-year window, three-year window. 

“I think going back, it would have been great to have a veteran quarterback like a Joe Flacco that first season. But ultimately, we made the decision to jump in head first with our youth movement. We had so many first- and second-year players, new staff. Let’s go in and attack this thing with youth. We know there’s going to be some growing pains, but we’re all going to grow together. I think we saw some of the benefits of that last year. But sometimes you don’t take into account the ramifications of playing a young quarterback early in his career. And so, I think if I had to do everything over again, I would have probably had that veteran presence in the room early for Zach.”

For teams that hold a pick so high in the draft, it’s hard to pick a player that the team isn’t ready to put on the field. If the Jets weren’t ready to play Wilson after making him the second overall pick, they arguably should have picked a different player — someone who would be ready to go right away.

“Those were all the things we talked about,” Douglas said. “We went through, just like we did this offseason, we went through every single scenario in terms of not using pick number two on a quarterback, trading pick number two to acquire more talent, using pick two on a quarterback and keeping Sam [Darnold] as a veteran presence. We went through every scenario. Ultimately, we decided to really attack the youth movement and go young and we didn’t look back.”

Now, they look ahead.

“When the change was made in the second-half of last year, the intent was for Zach to reset and really get back to basics,” Douglas said. “And that’s carried over into this offseason so far. . . . Zach has an unbelievable ceiling and Zach is wired the right way in terms of his love of the game, his work ethic, his attention to detail. And so, this is a great opportunity for him to shadow one of the best passers of all time in Aaron Rodgers and pick up every little thing he can from him and get better every day. And so, I know he’s attacking this offseason like no other. His energy level is unbelievable. It’s good to see him with a huge smile on his face and really working every day to get better.”

The better he gets, the better off the Jets will be. And maybe, in time, the baton will pass smoothly from Rodgers to Wilson — and the fans will be willing to give Wilson a second chance to make a first impression.

[slats]

My unpopular opinion at the time was to stick with Darnold and either take your guy or (preferably) trade that #2 for even more assets. LaFluer supposedly liked Sam and now he’s allegedly the most talented thrower on the 49ers, so it was probably true. 

[T0mShane]

7 minutes ago, slats said:

But sometimes you don’t take into account the ramifications of playing a young quarterback early in his career. And so, I think if I had to do everything over again, I would have probably had that veteran presence in the room early for Zach.”

They scouted Zach Wilson almost entirely over Zoom. 

[Mo Lew]

If Zach gets to sit behind Rodgers for at least one entire (healthy) year, his development will make the compensation we gave up for Rodgers seem like no brainer. 

[SickJetFan]

Seems to me they just had a bad case of The Lord of the Flies.

[T0mShane]

I’ve seen a lot of Douglas quotes about Zach this offseason and he’s missing the easy out entirely. He’s sticking with, “oh boy, just you wait to see what he looks like in Year Five (when we most surely will not be paying him).” He best tact would be, “Both the Eagles and Niners wanted him, so we were in good company.” Also, they should trade Wilson ASAP. Remove the talking point.

[JTJet]

TLDR version. 

Joe Douglas: "I ****ed up"

[Larz]

He let lafleur off the hook and by extension himself. The autopsy of lafleur around when he left showed he needed a veteran QB, he’s not a teacher, not a coach. He was a WR coach handed a raw rookie lol. Even Garett Wilson trashed his practices at one point. 
 

the “grow up together “ plan is ok for certain things but to just admit you should have had a veteran QB which is standard operating procedure, or picked a guy more ready to play right away is pretty shocking actually.

if I recall the jets QB room that year had 0 starts in the league. Can’t imagine that’s ever happened before. 
 

like I’ve said recently what matters is they learn and improve.  
 

Zach is 100% in their plans. Don’t come at me it’s their plan not mine 

[T0mShane]

1 minute ago, Larz said:

He let lafleur off the hook and by extension himself. The autopsy of lafleur around when he left showed he needed a veteran QB, he’s not a teacher, not a coach. He was a WR coach handed a raw rookie lol.

Offensive coordinators don’t develop quarterbacks. They install an offense that, hopefully, a QB can prosper in. LaFleur had his problems, but A1 among those problems was the fact that Zach Wilson sucked.

[Barton]

Myself and a few others called it after he was drafted. The kid is green and both the team and the coaching staff are not ready. A total lack of common sense by JD. 

[Maxman]

45 minutes ago, slats said:

My unpopular opinion at the time was to stick with Darnold and either take your guy or (preferably) trade that #2 for even more assets. LaFluer supposedly liked Sam and now he’s allegedly the most talented thrower on the 49ers, so it was probably true. 

I liked Sam. But if this Rodgers things work out it was all the right decision.

[CTJetsFan]

30 minutes ago, JTJet said:

TLDR version. 

Joe Douglas: "I ****ed up"

100%. And Rodgers was the only QB/scenario where JD could take the team to the next step AND maybe salvage Wilson. 

Signing Carr or Jimmy G would have meant giving up on Wilson due to the length of deals they wanted and not having the relationship that Rodgers has with Wilson.

[Maxman]

16 minutes ago, T0mShane said:

Offensive coordinators don’t develop quarterbacks. They install an offense that, hopefully, a QB can prosper in. LaFleur had his problems, but A1 among those problems was the fact that Zach Wilson sucked.

Oh yeah but how did LaFleur do with every other QB? How about josh Johnson?

Oh they all looked good? Nevermind then (except flacco of course).

[Larz]

25 minutes ago, T0mShane said:

Offensive coordinators don’t develop quarterbacks. They install an offense that, hopefully, a QB can prosper in. LaFleur had his problems, but A1 among those problems was the fact that Zach Wilson sucked.

Offensive coordinators that hype up their ability to develop a QB every offseason during interviews 

 

 

zach plainly and demonstrably regressed. That’s the environment more than anything else 

[LionelRichie]

I feel like JD swung for the fences with Zach and missed badly.  I don’t know if it was fear of missing in a fqb or if they drafted him based on hope but that was a terrible pick.   I didn’t believe he was even a serious option until a few weeks before the draft and couldn’t believe it when they made the pick - set the team back years and could have had a kings ransom for the  #2 overall pick.    

[Matt39]

46 minutes ago, Barton said:

Myself and a few others called it after he was drafted. The kid is green and both the team and the coaching staff are not ready. A total lack of common sense by JD. 

The fact he couldn’t move to NY/NJ full time job as all we needed to know.

[undertow]

53 minutes ago, Barton said:

Myself and a few others called it after he was drafted. The kid is green and both the team and the coaching staff are not ready. A total lack of common sense by JD. 

Agreed there were actually two atrocious decisions...one was taking that raw of a talent at 2 and the second was starting him from day one with a rookie staff.  It's amazing that 90 percent of the fanbase would get hysterical if you brought any of this up until about 6 months ago. lol

[batman10023]

12 minutes ago, Matt39 said:

The fact he couldn’t move to NY/NJ full time job as all we needed to know.

Couldn’t u wait to escape the tri state area as quick as possible?

[kevinc855]

45 minutes ago, LionelRichie said:

I feel like JD swung for the fences with Zach and missed badly.  I don’t know if it was fear of missing in a fqb or if they drafted him based on hope but that was a terrible pick.   I didn’t believe he was even a serious option until a few weeks before the draft and couldn’t believe it when they made the pick - set the team back years and could have had a kings ransom for the  #2 overall pick.    

What doesn't make sense about this theory is they literally handed him everything, the job right out of the gate. If they had some doubts but were swinging for the home run their risk management skills as an organization is wayyyy off course. I think the cold hard truth is Rex Hogan and his staff just ****ed up. Will they admit it? No

[UntouchableCrew]

1 hour ago, Larz said:

zach plainly and demonstrably regressed. That’s the environment more than anything else 

How did Zach “regress?” He sucked his first game here and sucked every game afterwards.

People doing mental gymnastics to blame everyone else for his failure is hilarious to me.

[bitonti]

It's not just that Zach stinks to the point of being a locker room cancer 

It's that jd refuses to admit it. 

If this in fact a super bowl quality team, they need a better QB 2 than Zach 

[Barton]

4 minutes ago, bitonti said:

It's not just that Zach stinks to the point of being a locker room cancer 

It's that jd refuses to admit it. 

If this in fact a super bowl quality team, they need a better QB 2 than Zach 

JD the same guy who kept Mann as his punter the last 3 years, just because he was his draft pick. Trying to limit his laundry list of blunders. 

[Beerfish]

A vet like Joe Flacco?  He should be fired as he has no clues about QBs.

The Jets should have got a VIABLE vet QB and made the kid sit for at least a year.

Better yet they never should have taken him, instead either rolled back with Darnold for one more year or still trade darnold and got another guy.

[jetstream23]

5 hours ago, slats said:

My unpopular opinion at the time was to stick with Darnold and either take your guy or (preferably) trade that #2 for even more assets. LaFluer supposedly liked Sam and now he’s allegedly the most talented thrower on the 49ers, so it was probably true. 

Sam and now Geno Smith, and maybe someday Zach could all turn out to be guys who just take longer to develop and to have that lightbulb go on.  It's amazing that the Jets will have two quarterbacks they drafted both starting for NFL teams this year and neither is with the Jets.  I'm certainly not saying that Sam or Geno are guys who will take a team to the promised land, but it's ironic how this is unfolding. Wouldn't really be surprised in the slightest if Zach is a starting QB for another NFL team in a few years and does okay.

[Jet Nut]

On 5/13/2023 at 3:50 PM, bitonti said:

It's not just that Zach stinks to the point of being a locker room cancer 

It's that jd refuses to admit it. 

If this in fact a super bowl quality team, they need a better QB 2 than Zach 

How exactly is he a locker room cancer?  You know beyond just saying he is.  

[JohnnyLV]

3 hours ago, slats said:

My unpopular opinion at the time was to stick with Darnold and either take your guy or (preferably) trade that #2 for even more assets. LaFluer supposedly liked Sam and now he’s allegedly the most talented thrower on the 49ers, so it was probably true. 

Lafleur was the biggest issue not Zach

[Joe W. Namath]

So a 23 year old kid may need more development before he is ready.  Shocking.

[southparkcpa]

13 minutes ago, Joe W. Namath said:

So a 23 year old kid may need more development before he is ready.  Shocking.

Yes…. The pro bowl and HOF is full of 1st rounders that got benched and totally shlt the bed.

 

You’re right.   Im waiting on Douglas’s presser on Becton. 

[southparkcpa]

14 minutes ago, johnnysd said:

Lafleur was the biggest issue not Zach

Hired by Run the Stairs Saleh.  This teams talent is now where it can compete…..  lets hope management has learned. 

[Jet Nut]

11 minutes ago, southparkcpa said:

Hired by Run the Stairs Saleh.  This teams talent is now where it can compete…..  lets hope management has learned. 

So?  
They both were 1st timers in their positions.  MLF failed, and what does that mean other than just that.  

[Jet Nut]

16 minutes ago, southparkcpa said:

Yes…. The pro bowl and HOF is full of 1st rounders that got benched and totally shlt the bed.

 

You’re right.   Im waiting on Douglas’s presser on Becton. 

Actually I can start with an all time great like Elway or Aikman and a host of others

Means as little as those who didn’t turn it around

[Rangers9]

It was an interesting read and he almost admits they made a big mistake. First drafting Zach that high and starting him from day one. He’s right Flacco would have been the smarter road rookie year at least first 8 games. As for Zach I don’t think he’s a disaster he had two horrible games in 2022. But so did other NFL QBs. If Zach is backup in 2023 a good chance he’ll get into games. 

[Warfish]

4 hours ago, slats said:

The better he gets, the better off the Jets will be.

I disagree, because I don't believe he will get meaningfully better.

The sooner he is replaced, the better off the Jets will be.

[Rangers9]

Darnold played better down the stretch at Carolina and won back the starting job over Mayfield but still wasn’t considered good enough by new head coach Reich who is an ex QB. I don’t think Sam’s the best QB in SF they seem to like Purdy but Lance could end up being the best one. Look three top QB draft picks in Mayfield, Darnold and Zach have been below average. On the other hand two top picks, Lawrence and Burrow have been impact.

 

 

[Jet Nut]

15 minutes ago, Warfish said:

I disagree, because I don't believe he will get meaningfully better.

The sooner he is replaced, the better off the Jets will be.

No one here knows if he will get meaningful better or not.

Which is why he isn’t going anywhere and shouldn’t.