Peyton Manning bashes NY Jets for Zach Wilson situation with hypocritical comments

The NY Jets officially put an end to the Zach Wilson era this week when they traded the former No. 2 overall pick to the Denver Broncos. Wilson's failures in New York have been a heavily discussed subject for some time, and Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning decided to weigh in on Tuesday.

During an on-air interview with Denver Sports, Manning bashed the Jets for their handling of Wilson's development while explaining why his former team, the Broncos, are a perfect landing spot for the former BYU standout, largely because of Sean Payton.

Manning was specifically critical of the Jets' coaching turnover, insisting that a rotating cast of offensive coordinators stunted Wilson's development.

"The best way to really screw a young quarterback up is to change coordinators on him every single year, and it drives me crazy. Let’s just sort of start over, right? And let’s just let Sean Payton and his staff coach you and kind of start from ground zero, which I think might be just what Zach needs. He will get coached hard here by Sean Payton and their staff; (it) is important for young quarterbacks to be coached hard. He’s obviously very talented."

Peyton Manning

Of course, Manning's comments are riddled with hypocrisy given his previous remarks about Wilson and why the offensive coordinator change occurred in the first place. Let's not forget that Manning's endorsement of Adam Gase is one of the biggest reasons the latter was hired in the first place.

NY Jets fans call out Peyton Manning over his hypocritical Zach Wilson comments

The Jets made the decision to fire former offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur due in large part to his deteriorating relationship with Wilson. It was Wilson who reportedly pushed for LaFleur's departure behind the scenes.

Despite this, Manning blamed the Jets for switching coordinators, even though the team did so seemingly at the request of their young quarterback. That doesn't make much sense.

Manning has also been vocal about his criticism of Wilson over the last couple of years, even going as far as to publicly trash him on live television during his Monday Night Football ManningCasts. Jets fans were quick to call out Manning's hypocrisy on social media.

Wilson obviously wasn't put in an ideal situation to succeed. His offensive line was an injury-riddled mess. His offensive coaching this past season was subpar. His receiving corps outside of Garrett Wilson was lackluster.

That said, there have been far worse situations for a young quarterback — including the one Sam Darnold was placed in just a few years earlier — and almost none have produced a QB who has been as bad as Wilson.

Wilson was gifted a star WR1, a top-five running back, and a top-five defense. His situation wasn't perfect, but it was far from unmanageable. Despite this, Wilson is considered one of the biggest draft busts in recent memory and is statistically one of the worst quarterbacks in modern NFL history.

Quarterback development isn't a black-and-white conversation. There are infinite variables at play that affect how a quarterback develops in the NFL. That said, to pretend the Jets were only to blame for Wilson's failures is foolish.

Wilson failed the Jets a lot more than the Jets failed Wilson. Manning seemed to agree last year, but I suppose that was before Wilson was traded to his former team.