Zach Wilson continues to handicap the NY Jets after embarrassing Week 3 loss

Zach Wilson was getting booed early and often against the New England Patriots on Sunday afternoon as he struggled to even remotely resemble an NFL quarterback.

He finished 18-of-36 for 157 yards and no touchdowns or interceptions. He was sacked three times, including one for a safety, and almost all of the pressure was his own fault.

He failed to throw to numerous wide-open receivers, often checking down far too late and for a very short gain. He even threw a 4th-and-10 pass, with the game on the line, two yards downfield to a covered tight end with the hopes he would "break a tackle" and get the first down.

More importantly, though, it is obvious that Wilson is impacting the rest of the team again. For the first time this year, fans saw Garrett Wilson upset and dejected on the sideline and saw Michael Carter screaming at his position coach.

The defense is forced to play perfect football every week, and even one mistake, such as the one made by the secondary on the long passing touchdown, can cost them the entire game.

The offensive line is put into a terrible position of being forced to run block against stacked boxes and pass protect on obvious passing downs.

Finally, the coaching staff is forced to coach a game in a "don't lose his confidence" way. It creates bad play design, predictable play calls, basic route concepts, and no chances to stretch the field deep. It's a recipe for failure.

Although much overdue, it's finally obvious to all players, coaches, and fans alike that the Jets must make a move and replace Wilson with a veteran quarterback, and no, it's not Tim Boyle.

Below is an in-depth look at just how much Wilson is impacting the entire team, with some narrative about how they can also play better, in general, in this most recent game against the Patriots.

1. Zach Wilson is just not good

Throughout the game and while talking to people and reading opinions of the Jets offense, it's easy to get carried away and focus on other pieces of the team that contributed to the loss.

For example, the offensive line play hasn't been great, or receivers dropped a pass here or there, or the defense hasn't been as dynamic as expected. However, it all comes back to Wilson.

He is now 44-of-84 (52.4%) for 467 yards, two touchdowns, and four interceptions. He has a passer rating of 57 and a QBR of 27.0, where the league average is 50.0. Over a full season, he is on pace for 2646 yards, 11 touchdowns, and 23 interceptions. That is abysmal quarterback play.

He has failed to improve at all, now in year three, and over 30 starts into his career. This isn't difficult. If Wilson was ever going to be good, he would show it by now. Throughout his career, his QBRs have gone from 33.4 his rookie season to 38.5 last year, and now back down to 27.0 this year. This is BAD!

Outside of one singular drive against the Patriots, where Wilson managed to get the ball out quickly to his receivers consistently enough to drive the field, he was embarrassingly bad. The Jets totaled 56 yards of offense across their first nine drives. This is a nightmarish NFL offense.

More damningly for Wilson, he has a QBR of 7.6 this year when the defense does not account for a pass rush win. Just to explain, this means the entire offensive line does its job, and there is not a single instance of pressure for the play.

League average QBR is 70.3 in those instances. Wilson is at 7.6. He completes only 52 percent of those passes for just 4.8 yards per attempt.

Even when it seems like his confidence is back and growing, he manages to compound mistakes. For example, following the huge touchdown drive, Wilson got three more chances to win the game for the Jets.

His drives looked like this: 0-for-2 and sacked for a safety, 1-of-4 for two yards, and 1-of-3 for 29 yards. 2-of-9 for 31 yards, plus a sack safety, is just not good enough for a guy in year three.

2. Zach Wilson's play handcuffs the NY Jets defense

Let's start debunking some of the myths now about why Zach Wilson may be struggling or at least ways that the rest of the team isn't helping. A puzzling one this year has been that the Jets' defense has not lived up to expectations.

Although, indeed, they haven't been as dominant as they were made out to be, they have been a super strong defense. So far, they have given up 16 points to the Bills, 30 to the Cowboys, and 13 to the Patriots.

That's less than 20 points per game. If we are being fair as well, the Cowboys scored nine points directly off of Jets turnovers without even getting a first down on the ensuing drives. Remove those nine points, and the Jets are doing a good job keeping teams from scoring.

If you want to be critical of the Jets' inability to register sacks or create turnovers the last two weeks, that's fine. It's true. The pass rush hasn't created nearly enough pressure, Will McDonald, the highly skilled rusher they just took in the first round, has barely played, the defense has dropped interceptions routinely, and they have allowed too many long drives.

That is all true.

But it's also very true that they are playing under enormous amounts of pressure to not make a single mistake, or else the game is over.

Look at this game against the Patriots. The defense played fantastic football all day long. They allowed the Patriots to move the ball but held them to 8-for-19 on third down and forced eight punts.

They gave the offense three possessions in the final five minutes of the game to score and take the lead. The offense ended up giving up points and managed to score exactly zero.

The Jets surrendered one big play, a 58-yard touchdown on busted coverage where a tight end slipped by safety Jordan Whitehead on a play-action pass. That was the only major mistake they made. They gave up only 13 points, and the Jets never really felt like they were in the game.

The defense is also on the field for an egregious amount of plays because the offense cannot move the ball at all. The Bills had 33 minutes of time of possession, the Cowboys had 42 minutes, and the Patriots had 32 minutes. You cannot win games like this when the defense is asked to do so much.

The most damning stat, though is this one; in the past two seasons, in games where Zach Wilson has started or played, if the Jets scored the league average of 23 points per game, they would be 15-3 in those 18 games. This defense is elite. The offense, led by Wilson, can just not score the ball.

3. Zach Wilson's play makes the offensive line worse

Playing offensive line in the NFL is tough enough. There are superstar pass-rushers everywhere, such as Micah Parsons, who are unblockable enough. Zach Wilson makes this all so much worse for the Jets.

Anyone who knows anything about football knows that on first and second down, the Jets are going to try and run the ball. In theory, this would set up a short yardage third down where they can either run again or have Wilson try and throw a short pass, which should be easier to complete.

The problem is that everyone knows this. Teams the last two weeks have decided to just stack the box on early downs, giving up very little yardage on those run plays. In fact, in the last two weeks, the Jets have run the ball 31 times for just 61 yards. They aren't fooling anyone.

The problem for the offensive line is that the advanced stats paint a picture that they can't generate any success running the ball or in their run-block win rates. They graded out as 26th out of 32 this past week. But of course, they can't win when teams are putting more in the box than blockers available.

Additionally, when they then face third-and-long after two bad runs, the other team knows that on third and 8 the Jets are throwing the ball. Parsons dominated a game just rushing the passer on third and long. Matt Judon just did it again this week.

Wilson holds the ball too long, runs into pressure himself far too often, misses easy passes when there is no pressure, and doesn't create confidence in the unit.

Don't get me wrong, the offensive line isn't spectacular. Duane Brown was not good last week against Parsons. Mekhi Becton isn't great either and moving guys out of position isn't a great formula for success.

But Wilson makes their job even harder offensively. One slip up and the drive is ruined. They can't get any push in the run game against stacked boxes. Wilson runs himself into sacks and pressures. When they do protect him, he's dead last in clean pocket QBR and completion percentage. It's all bad, and it all comes back to Wilson.

4- Zach Wilson's play handcuffs the NY Jets coaches

This is the most important piece of the puzzle right now. During the game, many fans were quick to criticize offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett for his inability to call plays that put the Jets in successful situations.

As a former play-caller myself, when you have no faith in the quarterback to be able to throw the ball consistently or accurately, it makes it very difficult to call plays. Is Hackett great at calling plays? No. Absolutely not. He never has been and never will be.

The lack of playing time for Jeremy Ruckert and Mecole Hardman is inexcusable at this point. His complete lack of usage for Breece Hall against Dallas is not okay. There has been very little first-down play-action used at all. This is all true, and it's all not good for an offensive coordinator.

But what exactly is he supposed to do? If Wilson came out in a spread offense every play with four receivers on the field and went full gun-slinger, would that be any better? Yes, that means Hardman would play more, but at what cost?

Do we want Wilson throwing it that much on first down? Or even second down? I mean, the guy is the worst quarterback in the league in almost every available stat. If he doesn't run it enough, we get mad at him. When he runs it on early downs, we get mad at him. It's a lose-lose for Hackett.

The most alarming thing Sunday against the Patriots was that receivers seemed to not be open down the field. Wilson was holding it forever and then settling for inaccurate check-downs for little to no gain, or as Tony Romo put it on the broadcast, "There goes Wilson running for his life again to avoid no pressure."

However, as many analysts and fans have now been commenting, the All-22 camera angle reveals something different than what was seen live. All day long, Zach Wilson had open receivers down the field and open for checkdowns. He either wouldn't throw it or would throw it far too late.

Below are just some of the most blatant examples of Wilson missing open receivers despite great pass protection that any other NFL quarterback would have seen.

These plays show a consistent and troubling theme. First, there are guys open everywhere across the field on a fairly routine basis. Hackett is designing plays that create separation and space for his playmakers. Also, it shows maybe why Randall Cobb is playing so much... the guy gets open every play.

But it also shows so many issues with Wilson. He isn't seeing the field at all. Even simple crosses and drags across the middle that are wide open, Wilson is just missing. He doesn't see the easy corner to Cobb or multiple wide-open fades to Garrett Wilson that should be huge plays.

Most alarmingly, all of these plays have "good" pass protection. On more than a few occasions, Wilson actually runs into the pressure himself. He's creating the pressure by leaving the pocket early. This has been a consistent issue for Wilson throughout his first three years.

These clips also show just a lack of basic football comprehension by Wilson. For example, when the end loops from the left side towards the middle, you must scramble to that vacated area, not the other way.

When a middle linebacker blitzes, you must throw the quick slant to Cobb into that vacated area. When it's 4th-and-10, you must throw the ball to the sticks, not well short. These are basic things that any high schooler is taught.

Final thoughts

My final ideas on this are simple. The Jets' failures offensively all come back to Zach Wilson and his inability to make basic NFL-level plays, see the field properly, and his fear of making a mistake.

It puts an unbelievable amount of pressure on the coaches, offensive line, and defense to be perfect, and even when they are, Wilson is still really, really bad.

Is Hackett a great coordinator? No. He isn't. Neither was Mike LaFleur, who quietly is now calling plays for the 9th overall rated offense through three weeks once he got away from Wilson.

The offensive line isn't very good either, but their job is even harder against stacked boxes, obvious passing situations, and Wilson either not throwing the ball or running into pressure.

The defense hasn't been as good as advertised, struggles to get off the field regularly, and doesn't make the splash plays they need to make.

But they are also forced to play perfectly, are well above average, keep teams from scoring at a high level, and are forced to play a ton of minutes every week because Wilson and the offense cannot move the ball.

The answer at this point is very obvious. A veteran needs to be brought in this week. I truly think even a below-average quarterback like Mike White can be successful with the weapons and defense the Jets have. It just can't be Zach Wilson any longer.