The #2 QB

[slats]

A lot of talk about the Jets #2, especially seeing as it’s “fan favorite” Zach Wilson currently occupying the role. I’m starting a thread because the topic seems to pop up in other threads. I’ll lazily post my reply to to one of those comments to open it up…

My opinion is that if Rodgers goes down for any significant period of time, or suffers a season ending injury at any time, that’s it: season’s pretty much over. I believe that’s their calculation as well. Neither Teddy Bridgewater nor Carson Wentz is carrying this team anywhere. How much money do you want to throw at this backup QB if you don’t like the term “high priced”? What I think is that whatever that cost might be, they’d rather put it into the team around Rodgers and hope that core can get them thru should he miss any time. Or put it into the defense and let them carry you for a couple games - they did it last year. 
 
Zach sucks, but Zach was also 5-2 at one point last season. It’s not completely out of line to think they believe that he can game manage them thru a Rodgers-less stretch. If not, they brought in Boyle who knows Hackett and the offense. 
 
For me, I don’t care if Zach’s the backup or listed as the emergency QB all year long. It has absolutely nothing to do with him (although, for appearances sake, they probably want him at #2). What it’s about is the best use of available resources when you already have $130M and a few draft picks invested in the QB position over the next two years just between Rodgers and Zach. 

[Matt39]

I’m skeptical of how seriously Wilson took this off-season and how serious he realizes his career is hanging in the balance. It’s a huge preseason for him. I’m assuming he’s actually going to play a lot (which should have happened year 1 and 2).

[Barry McCockinner]

Pretty much agree although there are a couple examples of backup qbs winning it all.

[GreenFish]

There are so many good teams in the AFC, that every game matters. Losing one game that should be a win because Rodgers is out could cost us playoff birth.

We need a good #2 QB. If that’s Zach great. If not, we need to get one. 

[slats]

6 minutes ago, Matt39 said:

I’m skeptical of how seriously Wilson took this off-season and how serious he realizes his career is hanging in the balance. It’s a huge preseason for him. I’m assuming he’s actually going to play a lot (which should have happened year 1 and 2).

I don’t have much faith in Zach, either, and hope that Rodgers is the iron man he generally has been over his career. They have Boyle and The Strev, too, if he sucks that hard. 
 
Zach has not been good at all, but comparisons to guys like Leaf or Russell aren’t fair, imho, because those guys were also a mess off the field. Zach seems, at least, to be a good citizen with head in the game. I’m hoping he’s relaxed in the #2 job and can maybe start having fun playing football again. In the preseason and practice. 

1 minute ago, GreenFish said:

There are so many good teams in the AFC, that every game matters. Losing one game that should be a win because Rodgers is out could cost us playoff birth.

We need a good #2 QB. If that’s Zach great. If not, we need to get one. 

But who’s out there and what would you spend on them. I’d keep a guy like Wentz as far away from this team as humanly possible, he’s got a worse crisis of confidence than Zach does. No need for that in the building. 

[Matt39]

4 minutes ago, slats said:

I don’t have much faith in Zach, either, and hope that Rodgers is the iron man he generally has been over his career. They have Boyle and The Strev, too, if he sucks that hard. 
 
Zach has not been good at all, but comparisons to guys like Leaf or Russell aren’t fair, imho, because those guys were also a mess off the field. Zach seems, at least, to be a good citizen with head in the game. I’m hoping he’s relaxed in the #2 job and can maybe start having fun playing football again. In the preseason and practice. 

But who’s out there and what would you spend on them. I’d keep a guy like Wentz as far away from this team as humanly possible, he’s got a worse crisis of confidence than Zach does. No need for that in the building. 

Rosen probably is the best comparison to date. Weak conference and trouble adjusting/getting along in the locker room. 

[ganggreen305]

Boyle!!!

[Bungaman]

STREV!!

[slimjasi]

Zach can only manage us through a Rodger-less stretch against this schedule if he is suddenly a significantly better QB this year than he has been. 
 

There are plenty of historical examples of backup QBs helping their teams win key games on the way to a championship (including entire playoff runs). People are right to be concerned that he’s the backup until he shows clear improvement on the field. 

[FidelioJet]

For better or worse.  Zach is going to be the #2.

You have to ask yourself, what does that say about Jets management belief in this team?

[FidelioJet]

24 minutes ago, Matt39 said:

trouble adjusting/getting along in the locker room.

This isn't true.

[Skeptable]

8 minutes ago, slimjasi said:

Zach can only manage us through a Rodger-less stretch against this schedule if he is suddenly a significantly better QB this year than he has been. 
 

There are plenty of historical examples of backup QBs helping their teams win key games on the way to a championship (including entire playoff runs). People are right he be concerned that he’s the backup until he shows clear improvement on the field. 

You would hope he learns from rodgers and is better, plus you have an OC that has been an OC before, so you would think he would better know how to utilize Zach's strengths if it came to that, and lastly 7 Tackles should not get hurt this year. 

Zach also won games that he shouldn't have won like Buffalo without Breece, so he has the ability to win games with this defense.

[GreenFish]

30 minutes ago, slats said:

I don’t have much faith in Zach, either, and hope that Rodgers is the iron man he generally has been over his career. They have Boyle and The Strev, too, if he sucks that hard. 
 
Zach has not been good at all, but comparisons to guys like Leaf or Russell aren’t fair, imho, because those guys were also a mess off the field. Zach seems, at least, to be a good citizen with head in the game. I’m hoping he’s relaxed in the #2 job and can maybe start having fun playing football again. In the preseason and practice. 

But who’s out there and what would you spend on them. I’d keep a guy like Wentz as far away from this team as humanly possible, he’s got a worse crisis of confidence than Zach does. No need for that in the building. 

I see this topic as a two part question. Does the number 2 QB matter? I say hell yes. There’s going to be a 10 win team that misses the playoffs. I think it’s unlikely 3 teams from the AFCE make the playoffs and Mia/Buf/NYJ are similarly talented. Every quarter of our divisional games will matter.

What can we do about it now? I don’t know. I think at this point, you have to see what Zach has in preseason. He might he the answer.  If not, the position has to be addressed via trade. Hard to know who will be available and what the cost will be. 

[slats]

4 minutes ago, GreenFish said:

I see this topic as a two part question. Does the number 2 QB matter? I say hell yes. There’s going to be a 10 win team that misses the playoffs. I think it’s unlikely 3 teams from the AFCE make the playoffs and Mia/Buf/NYJ are similarly talented. Every quarter of our divisional games will matter.

What can we do about it now? I don’t know. I think at this point, you have to see what Zach has in preseason. He might he the answer.  If not, the position has to be addressed via trade. Hard to know who will be available and what the cost will be. 

I think they’re making the conscious decision to build around the QBs they have, giving Rodgers the best team around him and, in the event he goes down for a short period of time, around whoever his backup is. Zach won five games last year with that roster pretty much intact, then the wheels fell off and no one won any games. 
 
My opinion is that no backup QB is going to make a difference is Rodgers is out long term, and that the guys they have should be able to hold the fort if he’s out for a game or two. Defense, running game, supporting cast can squeeze out a win or two. They did last year. Better to improve those units. 

[Larz]

Wild guess Zach gets 2 PS games to show improvement in confidence, footwork, accuracy , pocket awareness and of course getting the ball out to the right guy. 
 

They already have a list of guys they would call in case of suckage. I would guess. 

[Matt39]

23 minutes ago, FidelioJet said:

This isn't true.

Yes it is. 
https://thejetpress.com/posts/ny-jets-teammate-zach-wilson-likable-lamar-jackson

pre draft:

Durability is an issue for some teams. They say he played at about 205 pounds before bulking up at pro day, when he didn’t run a 40. Had right shoulder surgery (2018) and right thumb surgery (2019). “If they put him on the ground a lot, it’s like he’s going to break,” a fourth scout said. Hands were 9½ inches. Some scouts have reservations about his ability to lead and blend in a locker room. From Draper, Utah.

[JiFtheOracle]

Hot take; the difference between Zach Wilson and Teddy B. or Carson Wentz is not that wide and not wide enough, to waste the money.  They all suck, badly and if the team is relying on them to win, the season is lost.  You're better off saving the money, using it elsewhere and hoping if Rodgers suddenly misses games (he never does), that Zach has gained something through osmosis and he can hold the fort for a few games.  In fact, Teddy B. is why the Dolphins had to get lucky to make the playoffs.  He in fact, hurt their chances and he's an injury waiting to happen.  And there is video evidence that Carson Wentz sucks donkey balls, so hard pass on that dude.  You think players hate Zach?  Omg, just wait until smug Wentz enters the building.

Is Zach a good back up option?  No.  He's trash.  I wish they traded him and upgraded the back up position but it's too late for that and the bed is made.  It's ride or die w/ Aaron Rodgers, aint no back up out there playing savior. 

 

 

 

 

 

[KRL]

I've said it before, Wilson will have tons of opportunities during the summer to show improvement

(4 games and 2 weeks practicing against CAR & TB).  Even though he'll be playing against #2 & #3

if he's grown it will be very evident

[playtowinthegame]

Matt Ryan would be a good backup quarterback for an all in team in 2023.

[OtherwiseHappyinLife]

3 reasons why we need a solid backup who is capable of winning games with this roster.

1. We haven’t had our starting QB make it thru a full season in 7 or so years

2. A healthy Mike White starting in place of Joe Flacco and (later) not breaking his ribs likely gets us into the playoffs last year 

3. As someone above mentioned and as last year showed, every single game matters.  Imagine going 0-3 during an other winnable stretch because we have a guy behind center who is not capable of reading an NFL defense or moving the offense (see at NE last year)

Come on guys!  This should be an easy one.  I never want to see Zach Wilson start for the Jets in an important game.  Talk about setting ourselves up for punishment.

JD will give Wilson a chance to legitimately earn the position thru the preaeaaon, evaluating him to see if the lights are coming on.

I hope that they do but if they do not and we miss the playoffs because we had to throw Wilson to the wolves during a 3 or so game stretch, then JD should be fired for negligence.

[FidelioJet]

11 minutes ago, OtherwiseHappyinLife said:

3 reasons why we need a solid backup who is capable of winning games with this roster.

1. We haven’t had our starting QB make it thru a full season in 7 or so years

2. A healthy Mike White starting in place of Joe Flacco and (later) not breaking his ribs likely gets us into the playoffs last year 

3. As someone above mentioned and as last year showed, every single game matters.  Imagine going 0-3 during an other winnable stretch because we have a guy behind center who is not capable of reading an NFL defense or moving the offense (see at NE last year)

Come on guys!  This should be an easy one.  I never want to see Zach Wilson start for the Jets in an important game.  Talk about setting ourselves up for punishment.

JD will give Wilson a chance to legitimately earn the position thru the preaeaaon, evaluating him to see if the lights are coming on.

I hope that they do but if they do not and we miss the playoffs because we had to throw Wilson to the wolves during a 3 or so game stretch, then JD should be fired for negligence.

Zach Wilson has a better record as a starter than Mike White.

[nycdan]

1 hour ago, OtherwiseHappyinLife said:

3 reasons why we need a solid backup who is capable of winning games with this roster.

 

2. A healthy Mike White starting in place of Joe Flacco and (later) not breaking his ribs likely gets us into the playoffs last year 

 

This keeps popping up.  If you look at his game log from last year, you'll see this is absolutely stretching the truth so far it will snap in your face.

He had a great game against CHI (who was terrible).

He then proceeded to be awful in his 3 other games against MIN, BUF, and SEA with a combined 0 TDs, 4 INTs and 8 sacks in those 3 games (1 rushing TD).  His completion % in those games was 54%, 61% and 50%.  White was actually worse than Wilson at that point. 

Not defending Wilson, but White is still living rent-free in many fans heads here based on just two games out of eight starts - the CIN game from 2021 and the CHI game from 2022.  Beyond those two games, he is 0-6 with 2 TDs and 10 INTs.  

Perhaps it's time to let him go and more importantly, hope he gets a lot of starts down south this season.

[CSNY]

I’m of a mind that even if Rodgers goes down this team with all the offensive talent accumulated and having a stellar defense the Jets would still be a team to be feared. 
Although a Super Bowl would be far far more difficult and probably unattainable the Jets can still get into the playoffs with a competent #2 QB   Wilson’s debacle of a performance last year I have absolutely no confidence that he would be able to it. 

[shawn306]

1 hour ago, slats said:

A lot of talk about the Jets #2, especially seeing as it’s “fan favorite” Zach Wilson currently occupying the role. I’m starting a thread because the topic seems to pop up in other threads. I’ll lazily post my reply to to one of those comments to open it up…

My opinion is that if Rodgers goes down for any significant period of time, or suffers a season ending injury at any time, that’s it: season’s pretty much over. I believe that’s their calculation as well. Neither Teddy Bridgewater nor Carson Wentz is carrying this team anywhere. How much money do you want to throw at this backup QB if you don’t like the term “high priced”? What I think is that whatever that cost might be, they’d rather put it into the team around Rodgers and hope that core can get them thru should he miss any time. Or put it into the defense and let them carry you for a couple games - they did it last year. 
 
Zach sucks, but Zach was also 5-2 at one point last season. It’s not completely out of line to think they believe that he can game manage them thru a Rodgers-less stretch. If not, they brought in Boyle who knows Hackett and the offense. 
 
For me, I don’t care if Zach’s the backup or listed as the emergency QB all year long. It has absolutely nothing to do with him (although, for appearances sake, they probably want him at #2). What it’s about is the best use of available resources when you already have $130M and a few draft picks invested in the QB position over the next two years just between Rodgers and Zach. 

Zach will be the number 2 QB. It may not be what we want but that is the route I believe they are going to go

[Beerfish]

He has to be the #2 for a variety of reasons.

- Jets front office would look utterly stupid and incompetent if he were perma ditched after being take #2 overall.

- To salvage any value on the player he has to be #2 and at times play whether it be mop up duty or injury relief. 

- He actually won 5 games last year so with a great defense and running game at least the possibility is there.

If he was not a #2 overall pick he might be discarded ala Mike White.

 

[SomebodytoAnybody47]

ZW sucks but we have a better chance of surviving with him then Teddy B or whatever jabroni they would pick up now. That's the cold hard truth. 

[Biggs]

When I think of No. 2 I think Zach Wilson.  

[Big_Slick]

1 hour ago, FidelioJet said:

For better or worse.  Zach is going to be the #2.

You have to ask yourself, what does that say about Jets management belief in this team?

I'm with you, this is all about JD putting his draft reputation ahead of winning. He refuses to acknowledge that Zach is a huge bust. Bust picks happen, just move on.

JD & Saleh have stated that ZW is QB2.

That's absurd considering Zack's performance over the past two years.

Every play is important in a championship season. We can't afford to let Zach on the field if AR gets nicked for even one play.

[Big_Slick]

1 hour ago, slats said:

My opinion is that no backup QB is going to make a difference is Rodgers is out long term, and that the guys they have should be able to hold the fort if he’s out for a game or two

Agree and disagree.

If AR is out long term QB2 will not matter.

But if he's out for a few plays or two games Zach is going to play and that one or two games could make all the difference.

[Jetsfan80]

Zach being 5-2 at one point does nothing for me.  Lots of posters here got screamed at for expressing concerns of sustainability at that point in the season....and then what happened?  He lost both the Pats games and the Jacksonville game almost single-handedly.  And he will undoubtedly do the same thing if forced into action as the QB2 this year.

Spending a few million on a steady-handed QB who at least won't lose a game on his own is a no-brainer.  Zach Wilson needs to be the project QB3, not the project QB2.  We need to quit d*cking around on this.  It's madness.  A 1-2 week injury to Rodgers could very well sink our hopes at winning the division if we don't have at least a competent QB2.  Zach Wilson isn't that.

[Big_Slick]

54 minutes ago, FidelioJet said:

Zach Wilson has a better record as a starter than Mike White.

So what. Zach SUCKS. Mike White is the better QB. I'd take MW as our QB2 over ZW in a heart beat.

[rangerous]

2 hours ago, slats said:

A lot of talk about the Jets #2, especially seeing as it’s “fan favorite” Zach Wilson currently occupying the role. I’m starting a thread because the topic seems to pop up in other threads. I’ll lazily post my reply to to one of those comments to open it up…

My opinion is that if Rodgers goes down for any significant period of time, or suffers a season ending injury at any time, that’s it: season’s pretty much over. I believe that’s their calculation as well. Neither Teddy Bridgewater nor Carson Wentz is carrying this team anywhere. How much money do you want to throw at this backup QB if you don’t like the term “high priced”? What I think is that whatever that cost might be, they’d rather put it into the team around Rodgers and hope that core can get them thru should he miss any time. Or put it into the defense and let them carry you for a couple games - they did it last year. 
 
Zach sucks, but Zach was also 5-2 at one point last season. It’s not completely out of line to think they believe that he can game manage them thru a Rodgers-less stretch. If not, they brought in Boyle who knows Hackett and the offense. 
 
For me, I don’t care if Zach’s the backup or listed as the emergency QB all year long. It has absolutely nothing to do with him (although, for appearances sake, they probably want him at #2). What it’s about is the best use of available resources when you already have $130M and a few draft picks invested in the QB position over the next two years just between Rodgers and Zach. 

Pretty much agree.  We need to look at this from the singular loss of Rodgers for a game or two. If he goes down can the team carry on with Zach? IMO, yes because the oline will still be intact and so will the run game and the defense. These will be Zach’s best friends and mostly the reason why he won five games last season.

[jgb]

The “if we lose Rodgers we are sunk anyway” argument is extraordinarily unpersuasive.

There aren’t two binary outcomes: Rodgers plays all year or goes on season-ending IR. He could miss a couple quarters or games — concussion protocol, broken finger, etc etc.

It would be so ******* Jetsy to miss the playoffs by a game after committing $100 million to Rodgers because he misses a key game and we didn’t want to pay a measly few mill for someone better than Zach as a backup.

 

[neckdemon]

1 hour ago, OtherwiseHappyinLife said:

3 reasons why we need a solid backup who is capable of winning games with this roster.

1. We haven’t had our starting QB make it thru a full season in 7 or so years

2. A healthy Mike White starting in place of Joe Flacco and (later) not breaking his ribs likely gets us into the playoffs last year 

3. As someone above mentioned and as last year showed, every single game matters.  Imagine going 0-3 during an other winnable stretch because we have a guy behind center who is not capable of reading an NFL defense or moving the offense (see at NE last year)

Come on guys!  This should be an easy one.  I never want to see Zach Wilson start for the Jets in an important game.  Talk about setting ourselves up for punishment.

JD will give Wilson a chance to legitimately earn the position thru the preaeaaon, evaluating him to see if the lights are coming on.

I hope that they do but if they do not and we miss the playoffs because we had to throw Wilson to the wolves during a 3 or so game stretch, then JD should be fired for negligence.

Newsflash.....Mike White SUCKS!!!

[slats]

20 minutes ago, jgb said:

The “if we lose Rodgers we are sunk anyway” argument is extraordinarily unpersuasive.

There aren’t two binary outcomes: Rodgers plays all year or goes on season-ending IR. He could miss a couple quarters or games — concussion protocol, broken finger, etc etc.

It would be so ******* Jetsy to miss the playoffs by a game after committing $100 million to Rodgers because he misses a key game and we didn’t want to pay a measly few mill for someone better than Zach as a backup.

 

I’d suggest that the “a key game” argument is substantially less persuasive. It’s a long season, any single game should not be make or break, and we have solid evidence that Zach can game manage thru with the support of a running game and defense.  
 
And then the argument becomes even weaker when looking at alternative backups. Who out there is really going to make a difference? And what is that player going to cost?