New York Jets quarterback Zach Wilson’s season took another bad turn on Thursday night, as he was booed by home fans and later benched in the third quarter of the Jets’ 19-3 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Wilson, the second overall pick in the 2021 NFL draft out of BYU, has played poorly for most of this season and was removed as the Jets’ starting quarterback a month ago but has returned because of an injury to his replacement, Mike White.
On Thursday night, however, Wilson went just 9 of 18 for only 92 yards with no touchdowns and an interception and was replaced in the third quarter by Chris Streveler, whom the Jets promoted from the practice squad earlier in the day Thursday.
After the game, Wilson and Jets head coach Robert Saleh addressed the media and were asked a bevy of questions about the night. Here’s what they said.
Zach Wilson
On what he’s feeling postgame: “Right now the feeling is I just gotta put my head down and just try and get better for these guys. That was my message to them out there, is I’m trying to give them everything I’ve got. I’m trying to lay it out there for you guys and it’s not good enough and I gotta put them in a better position.”
On the range of emotions he felt getting benched: “You have to look at it from a team perspective, right? We’re not doing anything offensively, and I’m trying to figure it out, trying to help get the guys going, I’m trying to get myself in a little bit of a rhythm and we had nothing there. You can’t blame (Saleh) in that situation. He put Chris out there, and (Streveler’s) obviously great with his legs and his arm, and he was able to give us a little bit of a spark there...I’m always happy for him. He’s one of my good buddies, and so happy for him to go out there, but as you could see, that was the most we moved the ball all day.”
On seeing the offense have more success with him on the bench: “That’s why I gotta look at myself in the mirror. I gotta go back and I gotta watch this tape. You gotta be hard on yourself and just say, ‘Why are we not moving the ball?’ That starts with me. What am I doing that I gotta help this team be in a better position to move the ball? Whatever it is, gotta figure it out.”
On if he’s thinking too much: “I don’t know if it’s thinking. I just think you’re just trying to find some confidence on the field. I’m just trying to feel rhythm and flow and confidence and the ability to just feel like things are there, and I haven’t been able to find that for myself and so that’s the goal, that’s the search, is how can I approach this film with just that learning mindset, try and just get better from it, but I didn’t put my team in the best position out there and we weren’t able to do anything on offense.”
On if it’s tough hearing fans boo: “Yeah, it is, but you don’t blame them. We have a very passionate fanbase, and they’re here to watch us score touchdowns and we’re not scoring touchdowns, we’re not getting first downs, we’re not moving the ball, we obviously can’t throw the ball, so of course they’re going to be frustrated.”
On trying to stay positive: “It’s tough and I’m working my way through it, but I gotta be optimistic here. I believe in myself regardless of what anyone else does, and I’m just gonna go to work and show these guys how much I care about them on this team. This season’s not over for us and I’m gonna just do everything I can and control what I can.”
Robert Saleh
On why he replaced Wilson with Streveler: “It was meant to be a changeup initially. We were trying to change up to get the run game going. Obviously I know Zach was struggling, but Streveler came in, he ran a couple of plays, sparked the offense, got the explosive play and it just snowballed in a good way for us.”
On what Wilson’s struggles were rooted in: “There’s a lot of things. One, we couldn’t get the run game going again. Protection wasn’t as good as we wanted it to be. Obviously there were a couple of missed throws. It was collective all the way down.”
On if Wilson has improved over the last month: “I feel like he has gotten better, but obviously we gotta go show it on the football field. Again, it’s a collective thing that starts with coaching, but either way, it wasn’t close to good enough today.”
On what he said to Wilson after the game: “Keep your head up. He’s gotta keep working. We haven’t seen the last of him...it’s not just him. It’s a collective whole. We’ve all gotta find ways to get better.”
On if he’s worried about Wilson’s confidence: “Confidence is a big thing. As a human, you’re going to have adversity in your life. You’re going to have the ups and downs, and obviously he’s in it right now. Zach’s the type of kid that’s gonna work his tail off, he’s gonna keep his head down, he’s gonna find ways to continue to improve. Obviously you’d be remiss if you didn’t try to acknowledge the fact that there’s a confidence thing there, because when people are confident, they can conquer the world. It’s just something that we gotta help him with, too.”
On why the offense has seemed to perform better with other quarterbacks in beside Wilson: “I don’t have an answer for that one...those are things we gotta look at. To stand up here and give you that answer, I don’t have that answer. There’s a lot of stuff that we gotta talk about, but I don’t know. I don’t have that answer right now.”