Zach Wilson Has A Long Way To Go

It’s easy to explain away Zach Wilson’s disappointing rookie season by saying that he didn’t have enough support. After all, his offensive line left a lot to be desired, finishing in the bottom-5 in the NFL in sacks and pressure percentage. And his receivers often couldn’t get open quickly off the line against man coverage. However, many of Wilson’s issues had nothing to do with the cast around him.

The optimism surrounding the Jets after the moves they made this offseason seems justifiable. They now have much more talent on both sides of the ball than they did a year ago. But the improvements won’t be drastic in the win-loss column unless Wilson tightens up his game.

Doing the Little Things Right

It doesn’t take an expert to spot Wilson’s talent. From the arm strength to the ability to scramble, he can make some truly special plays:

Wilson is a big-play quarterback, or at least that’s what he appears to want to be based on his film. But the ability to make highlight plays does not make a great quarterback at the NFL level. Instead, doing the little things right all the time is what leads to consistency, and subsequently, success. And that’s where Wilson needs the most improvement.

His lack of precision is reflected in several areas. Most notably, his accuracy on short passes is…not good. Or at least it wasn’t during his rookie season. Wilson didn’t consistently complete those easy throws that keep the offense in manageable down-and-distance situations. In fact, he ranked 37th out of 38 qualifying quarterbacks in completion percentage on passes thrown between 0-9 yards from the line of scrimmage, according to Pro Football Focus:

It doesn’t matter how talented a quarterback is, regularly missing easy completions is a surefire way to lose games.

Throwing mechanics certainly played a role in that inaccuracy (feet, arm-slot, weight transfer, etc.). But it’s not just the inaccuracy of his throws that led to those incompletions. His imprecise footwork often threw off the timing of the passing game and impacted his readiness to throw.

This 3rd-and-2 is a great example. You can see the route concept with the reading progression illustrated below:

At the top of his drop, this was Wilson’s first option: