Grading Zach Wilson's Week 10 performance against the Raiders

NY Jets fans have had to experience a lot of bad offenses in recent years. After the Adam Gase and Mike LaFleur offenses, I did not think it was possible, but this season might be worse.

That said, I would argue that Zach Wilson is still playing well enough, all things considered. Nathaniel Hackett has been a bad play-caller. Aside from Garrett Wilson, who even had a few drops himself, the Jets have no capable receivers. The run game is so predictable it can never get going. And, of course, countless penalties.

Wilson has been put in a difficult position, but besides the costly interception at the end of the game, he played well against the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday Night Football.

Zach Wilson's Week 10 performance

Wilson completed 23-of-39 passes for 263 yards and an interception. The interception was an awful mistake with the game on the line, but it will probably lead to him getting more criticism for the loss than he deserves.

The stats don’t look great, but there were a lot of big plays taken off the board because of penalties and drops. The Jets had eight penalties in this game — one of which took a touchdown off the board. 

Wilson finished with a 64.0 offensive grade from Pro Football Focus. He was under pressure on 40 percent of his dropbacks and, in a clean pocket, that grade increased to 70.0.

In a clean pocket, Wilson completed 17-of-26 passes for 156 yards with two drops for an adjusted completed percentage of 79.2 percent. An injury-riddled offensive line, penalties, drops… for a backup quarterback, under these circumstances, he is playing well.

Wilson had nearly identical PFF grades to Josh Dobbs, whom many fans are upset the Jets did not trade for at the trade deadline. Now, PFF does not mean everything, but I think it shows some context to how each of their performances is dependent on their teams and situations.

Wilson was also hampered by bad play-calling. Now, the Jets should have won this game by halftime. They should have had one, probably two, and possibly even three touchdowns, but all three of those drives stalled after penalties.

Instead, the Jets only had nine points at halftime, but the offensive play-calling would make you think they were up by 20.

They were nowhere near as aggressive as they should have been with such a small lead. I understand they want to rely on the defense, but you can’t expect them to let up less than 12 points on the road across the country.

One thing I do not understand is why they do not have some designed run plays for Wilson. He is a good runner and nearly scored a touchdown on a scramble but stepped out of bounds. It would add a much-needed element to the offense and would make things less predictable.

The Jets have not scored a touchdown since Breece Hall’s touchdown against the Philadelphia Eagles, where they let him score. It's been 11 quarters since a touchdown.

The quarterback does deserve some blame for this, but I do not think he is the biggest problem with the offense. I certainly do not think it would look better with Trevor Siemien or Tim Boyle.

At the end of the day, Aaron Rodgers was supposed to mask the flaws of his guys — Nathaniel Hackett, Allen Lazard, Randall Cobb, etc. Hiring Hackett and paying Lazard was a tough pill to swallow, but it was worth it to get Rodgers.

Now, he got hurt, and instead, Wilson is the quarterback. Given the circumstances, I am not sure which quarterback that was realistic to add after the Rodgers injury would be doing a better job. 

Week 10 Grade: C+