Joe Douglas learned a lesson about quarterbacks in 2023, prompting him to double down on a key transaction he made in 2022 and ready to part with a former top pick.
Zach Wilson’s days in New York are probably numbered. The Jets are willing to move on from the No. 2 pick in the 2021 draft if an interested party makes a compelling offer, but they are not in a hurry.
“I know you guys talked to (Jets owner) Woody (Johnson) about Zach, and my thoughts are in line with Woody that Zach is an asset,” the Jets’ general manager stated Friday. “At the same time, we are clearly open to dealing Zach. There were discussions. Nothing has actually changed since we spoke in Florida. We’re willing to trade him; there’s just no news to share on that.”
Wilson has elected to stay away from the team during the Jets’ voluntary practices, which is logical considering his situation. Douglas didn’t go into detail about the situation, referring to it as a voluntary period and a decision “for Zach to make if he wants to be here.”
It’s easy to understand why Wilson wouldn’t want to be there. He arrived as the Jets’ anointed future, was thrown into the fire behind a porous offensive line, and continually failed to show indications of improvement. He most certainly started 2023 expecting to wait behind Aaron Rodgers, the future Hall of Famer acquired by New York in a spectacular trade that sent the Jets to the forefront of the 2023 hype train.
That train collapsed when Rodgers sustained an Achilles injury on the fourth play of his Jets career, throwing Wilson back into the fire, which rapidly turned into a terrible inferno.
If New York wanted confirmation that Wilson was not the long-term solution, they got enough of it in 2023. Now, they’re looking to move on — and potentially create a developmental scenario for another young passer with no pressure as the third signal-caller on New York’s depth chart behind Rodgers and veteran Tyrod Taylor, whom Douglas wisely signed as insurance after realizing how valuable he can be in 2023.
“The most important position in sports,” Douglas explained. “For us, it’s funny; I was going back and looking through certain selections, seeing how teams handled the quarterback position. I went back and examined how the Packers performed in the 1990s. You choose a guy like Mark Brunell in the fifth round, then (Matt) Hasselbeck in the sixth round, and you progress. During Farve’s tenure, they were a quarterback farm. Aaron Brooks. Then they chose Aaron Rodgers in the first round, but I’d like to be a quarterback factory.
“I’d want to have quarterbacks that we draft every year. Even if you hit on two or three like the Packers did, you can turn those into future picks or have them develop into starters elsewhere, like Mark Brunell, Aaron Brooks, and Hasselbeck did.
It’s ambitious, but the Jets will need to find a replacement for Rodgers before long. Why not bring in a young star and let him study behind Rodgers for a season or two before replacing a then-retired Rodgers and establishing a successful system that can generate low-risk assets in the future?
However, it is not now at the top of New York’s list. With Wilson, they discovered that osmosis alone cannot transform a promising quarterback into a true product. And they’ll have to decide what to do with him in the coming weeks or months, particularly if they need to make room for a developmental prospect added in the draft or as an undrafted free agent.
Furthermore, they owe it to Wilson to place him somewhere good rather than simply abandoning him.
It will be a difficult balancing act that the Jets never anticipated when they took him with the second pick in 2021.
“That’s the trick, right?” Douglas stated. “That’s the magic trick, so to speak, is to make sure Zach’s in the right spot while also doing what’s best for the New York Jets.” That is the line we are treading. “We have to do what is best for the team.”
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