Zach Wilson produced a blunder Sunday when he claimed he isn’t concerned about the offensive struggles under him after the 31-24 loss to the Dolphins.
Wilson played OK and finished with 170 yards passing, a lost fumble, a rushing touchdown and was sacked six times.
But since Wilson returned as the starter, the offense has failed to produce a 300-yard outing and is averaging 16 points. The unit has scored over 20 once, against the Houston Texans when they hit 21.
When Wilson was asked postgame, even though it’s not all on him, how much responsibility does he shoulder for the offensive struggles. He disregarded the question surrounding the offensive struggles under him.
“Yeah I’m not worried about that,” Wilson said.
That’s a bad answer, no matter how you slice it. To not worry about an atrocious offense as the leader of the unit is a bad look for a young quarterback trying to establish himself as a franchise QB.
That’s deflecting blame from a situation that you’re a part of and shows a lack of accountability. It’s part of the job to accept blame for offensive struggles no matter what. All the elite QBs do.
Wilson could have given the cliche answer saying, “We have to be better and I have to play better.”
Boom, end of the discussion.
Wilson should be worried about the offense struggling, because he’s the quarterback of a lowly offense that is costing the Jets chances at winning games.
Let’s focus on the facts, not feelings.
His offense played a major part in why the Jets failed to upset the Dolphins. They were leading 17-10 at halftime, but the offense only managed 56 yards in the second half.
And it’s not like they weren’t capable: they racked up 100 yards in the first quarter before sputtering.
Producing under 100 yards for an entire half is unacceptable.
Granted the defense allowing 21 points in the second half played a major role, but NFL teams can’t win when the offense doesn’t score in a half.
But it’s been a trend since Wilson has returned as the offense’s been abysmal and he’s contributing to it.
He’s only completing 54% of his passes but his expected completion percentage is 68.6%.
He’s tossed two touchdowns, and two interceptions, and has a lost fumble with while passing for 743 yards. He does have three rushing touchdowns, but two were QB sneaks.
Wilson’s thrown for under 210 yards in three of the four games and hasn’t thrown a touchdown in those games either.
Let’s put into context how the offensive struggles are unacceptable.
They’re averaging 257 yards per game and 16 points.
The worst offense in the league belongs to the 3-11 Texans (264 yards a game). Accumulating 300 yards isn’t a tough task, 31 other teams average more than 300. And scoring more than 16 points per game is something only three teams are failing at.
It wouldn’t be a fair question if the offense struggled similarly to its current state in Wilson’s absence. But when the No. 2 overall pick missed time, the offense produced at a significantly higher rate.
The unit averaged 435 yards and 24.5 points with Joe Flacco, Mike White and Josh Johnson—not exactly Pro Bowl QBs—under center.
Johnson threw for 300 yards with three touchdowns in three quarters against the Colts. White tossed the rock for 405. Flacco tore up the Dolphins blitzing scheme.
I understand Wilson is a rookie, and there’s growing pains. But it’s not unreasonable to demand the offense under Wilson to manufacture over 300 yards and score more points.
Is it all on Wilson? Absolutely not.
The receivers led by Keelan Cole, Jamison Crowder, Braxton Berrios and Denzel Mims need to be better with Corey Davis and Elijah Moore sidelined.
The offensive line must block better because of the former BYU standout’s tendency to hold the ball.
And Robert Saleh echoed those sentiments.
“Everyone is always going to look at the quarterback. That’s just natural,” Saleh said. “Call me old school. It’s a collective effort. It’s receivers winning one-on-one, it’s O-line protecting, it’s the run game going, and then obviously it’s Zach delivering the football where it needs to be delivered and in a timely manner. So it’s not all on Zach. It’s on all of us.”
The Jets offensive struggles are a collective effort. But it starts with the QB and he shouldn’t have said he isn’t worried about that. That comment isn’t a referendum on the 22-year old. He’ll learn from it.