A Final Word On Zach Wilson’s Sneak And Its Aftermath, Plus Assessing Two Trades

The New York Jets players soon will have their chance to make their final statement of the 2021 season when they face when they visit Buffalo at 4:25 p.m. on Sunday. 

After that, head coach Robert Saleh and the coaching staff will make their final evaluations of the season, and the front office, led by general manager Joe Douglas, will prepare for a busy off-season to try to improve a still very-flawed team. 

But first, some observations before that process begins:

Wilson is not selfish, just young. When Zach Wilson’s fourth-and-2 quarterback sneak failed spectacularly against Tampa Bay, he faced a firestorm of criticism, including from the SNY post-game analysts, Bart Scott, Willie Colon and Leger Douzable. Colon even termed it an act of “selfishness.” The theme was that Wilson played hero ball instead of running the designed play and handing off to wide receiver Braxton Berrios for a jet sweep. 

Wilson’s defense was that he saw an opening. Coach Robert Saleh and offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur both said it should have been communicated to Wilson that under no circumstances should he change he play to the other option, which was the sneak. 

Thus, it was a rookie mistake. There is no reason not to believe them, and no reason to believe Wilson was trying to deny Berrios his moment. He simply made a bad read. It happens, especially to rookies. 

However, it could help Wilson in the future, when he makes a mistake in judgment, to use the words I and me more often when explaining it. He has done it in earlier in the season with bad reads on interceptions.

Four days afterward, Wilson said of the play, “I think it was obviously a rough situation, but I think it’s going to eventually be a good learning experience for all of us in that time. Even for me, how can I have better communication going into a game as far as just, ‘Hey, what are we thinking on this play?’ Understanding the situation and altering the decisions there. There is a lot of people and a lot of things going on at that time and he (LaFleur) can’t take the blame for all of that.  

“Everyone could’ve been better right there in that situation,” he added, “but I think the cool thing is we can all kind of learn from that, that’s going to be the good situation that hopefully next year, the year after that, when something like that comes up again, we’re better prepared and ready to get after it because we’ve been in that situation before.” 

Wilson is great at making wins and his own success team things in his comments to the media, but sometimes, a mental mistake needs to be individualized, at least publicly. He’s been good about that with his own interceptions—of which there have been none lately—and needs to be that way with audibles, too. 

Wilson’s progress. Wilson’s mistake in a pre-snap read overshadowed one of his most complete peformances of the season. It didn’t quite compare statistically to his virtuoso performance in a win over Tennessee on Oct. 3, but this was more impressive because he did most of it from the pocket, rather than freelancing on the run as he has in other games. 

No “sixth” sense. The Jets cut veteran defensive end Shaq Lawson on Saturday. Lawson, acquired in a trade with Houston in August, had been a healthy scratch two of the last three games and was only active against Jacksonville because the Jets were beset with COVID positives. He played 33 snaps that day and had no stats. 

It was an easy move to make. The Jets would have been on the hook for $9 million against the salary cap in 2022 had Lawson not been cut before June 1.

That kind of summed up his season. He had 15 solo tackles, one sack and one huge interception that helped the Jets beat Cincinnati on Halloween, but otherwise wasn’t worth the sixth-round pick the Jets used to get him. 

Douglas also used a sixth-round pick in a trade that garnered backup quarterback Joe Flacco from Philadelphia. Is it possible he has helped mentor Wilson? Yes, but the Jets, in essence, have been paying four quarterback coaches since early November. How many voices does Wilson need in his ear? 

Saleh is fond of saying a team can simply trade down a spot in the third round and pick up another sixth-round selection. There is truth to that, but the Jets did get Echols, whom they like a lot in the sixth round, as well as punter Braden Mann, whom they also value.  

Douglas has scored well on waiver claims (Berrios, John Franklin-Myers, Ty Johnson) but might want to keep the sixth-round picks in his pocket for a while.

Defense not a finished product. Wilson’s sneak also provided cover for a Jets’ defense that proceeded to allow the Buccaneers to drive 93 yards with no timeouts to score the winning touchdown in only 1:57. Granted, the drive was conducted by a future Hall of Famer, but still. Make no mistake, despite incremental improvements in recent weeks, this unit still needs a major overhaul in the off-season. 

And although rookie cornerback Brandin Echols deserves credit for his interception of living legend Tom Brady, New York still needs plenty of help at that position. The Jets must select a cornerback with one of the four draft picks they have in the first two rounds next spring.