This offseason, the New York Jets realized that they had a championship-caliber roster that did not have a championship-caliber quarterback. They rectified that issue by trading several draft picks to the Green Bay Packers for future Hall of Famer Aaron Rodgers.
Alas, the Rodgers era in East Rutherford, NJ lasted just four snaps, as Rodgers suffered a torn Achilles tendon on the Jets' first drive of the season during their season opener against the division rival Buffalo Bills. Deposed starter Zach Wilson assumed Rodgers' place in the lineup, and while Wilson went 14 of 21 for 140 yards, one touchdown, and one interception, the Jets nonetheless came back to pull off a win against the Bills thanks to their elite defense buckling down and forcing four Josh Allen turnovers.
Now, though, Wilson has to fill in for Rodgers for an extended period -- and potentially the entire rest of the season. What does offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett -- who was fired as the Broncos' head coach last season and ostensibly hired in New York specifically to coach Rodgers, with whom he had previously worked in Green Bay -- want to see from Wilson going forward?
"Every quarterback is different," Hackett said, per the New York Daily News. "I want Zach to be Zach."
To date in his career, Zach being Zach has not worked out particularly well for either Wilson or the Jets. In two NFL seasons, Wilson completed just 55.2% of his passes at an average of 6.4 yards per attempt, with 15 touchdowns against 18 interceptions, while taking a sack on an absurd 9.7% of his dropbacks. His near-total lack of ability to lead the Jets' offense is what inspired the trade for Rodgers in the first place.
If New York is going to come anywhere close to meeting the preseason expectations bestowed upon the team when it acquired Rodgers, it will need Wilson to be a whole lot better than he has been in the past, beginning with this weekend's game against a Dallas Cowboys defense that is fresh off a total destruction of Daniel Jones and the New York Giants.
