Why NY Jets fans must stop overreacting about Zach Wilson

It never ceases to amaze me how intensely emotional and irrational the NY Jets fan base is. For four weeks, everyone shouted from their rooftops so loudly that Zach Wilson had "turned a corner" that the greatest QB in franchise history had to dismiss his criticism of the young signal-caller.

ESPN and other mainstream media personalities tried their best to prop him up, crediting him for fourth-quarter comebacks that were made almost entirely by the Jets defense and highlighting his few interceptions during that time.

The issue with all of this hype and propping in my eyes was that nothing had changed — week in and week out, I pointed out how Wilson was still unable to throw touchdowns, and it was still a struggle for him to reach 200 yards in a game, but I was called a hater.

Wilson was still on the up and up simply because the team was winning, but if anyone watched the games with their eyes instead of their hearts, they would see that Wilson today is largely the same Wilson as in 2022, who was largely the same Wilson as in 2021. The biggest improvement has been short-yardage (0-9) accuracy.

Has NY Jets QB Zach Wilson improved this season?

He still has complete unawareness in the pocket, trouble reading the defense pre and post-snap, and takes much longer than the average QB to make decisions.

He also, for some reason, is allergic to throwing the ball away, so he instead takes horrifically bad sacks for tons of yardage or, even worse, loses the ball and gives it to the other team.

I just want to put this out here and make it abundantly clear because if the Jets come out and win this game, we’ll be right back to where we started with the “give this kid a chance" talk.

The fact of the matter is that the defense dictates whether or not this team wins. Outside of that, Breece Hall dictates how far the offense can go.

Monday night’s 263 passing yards is the most Wilson’s thrown in a game this season, and his five touchdowns this season match what rookie C.J. Stroud accomplished in one game last week. Win or lose, the Jets pass game and scoring offense remain completely anemic.

But let’s forget about all of that. Zach Wilson is the quarterback of the New York Jets this season, even if his head coach literally cannot answer why that is.

We must support and rally around the kid, just as his teammates have done for three years, and hope for the best despite almost certainly getting the worst. So, if the Jets are to win this primetime game against the Las Vegas Raiders this week, it will be up to the defense and Breece Hall.