INDIANAPOLIS — Joe Douglas has acknowledged that weapons on both sides of the ball are a must for Zach Wilson.
“I think there’s a lot of ways that we can help our young quarterback,” the Jets general manager said at the NFL Combine in Lucas Oil Stadium Wednesday. Douglas is part of the Jets contingent at the combine this year, which includes other members of the front office and scouting department. (Robert Saleh and his coaching staff won’t attend the combine in person and will conduct interviews virtually.) “If we can put pieces around him to make sure that he has a lead instead of playing from behind, young quarterbacks are going to be in a better position to succeed.
“One avenue to help the quarterback is playmakers right? It’s the weapons. It’s the wide receivers. It’s the tight ends, the backs, but there’s also the other ways to help it, which is a good solid defense to get on the ball back as often as you can.”
Wilson’s rookie year was underwhelming. He was 30th in yards, 32nd in touchdowns, 31st in passer rating, 30th in QBR and he completed 55% of his passes for the worst mark in the league. His average passing yards were a lowly 179.5 per game. He threw nine touchdowns and he had the sixth-most interceptions (11) in the league.
Wilson was also sacked 44 times, some falling on Wilson, some on the offensive line. But 32 of those sacks happened when Wilson held the ball for four seconds or longer — basically an eternity in the NFL time — which was third-most in the league last season.
The obvious way to accelerate his development is to add more offensive talent across the board. Adding a tight end, an offensive lineman, running back and a receiver could catapult the second year QB from BYU development to bona fide NFL franchise star.
Consider the QBs who were once in Wilson’s position: Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, Josh Allen, Dak Prescott, Justin Herbert, Lamar Jackson and Kyler Murray.
What do they all have in common? Weapons.
So far, Wilson has Elijah Moore, Michael Carter and Corey Davis, who were solid enough for the QB in his rookie season. They and the rest of the team helped him learn what works for him and what doesn’t: He stopped leaning so heavily on the backyard hero football he displayed early in the season; he took what the defense gave him instead of holding the ball excessively and he developed a better grasp of reading defenses. This played a part in limiting his turnovers (three) in his final seven games.
Douglas was also impressed with Wilson’s growth from the first half of the season to when he returned from his knee injury.
“I saw his confidence go up,” Douglas said. “I touched on this a little bit at the end of the season meeting the way he protected the ball. The way that he executed the offense with confidence. And let’s face it, in the last three, four or five games, we weren’t at full strength. We had a lot of guys down. So for him to play well, take care of the football, put the offense in position to score points, keep our team in a lot of these games down the stretch with often third-, fourth-, fifth-string guys.
“That showed a lot of grit, a lot of poise, a lot of confidence.”
But more will be needed for further development and success in his second year.
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