Zach Wilson's First Scrimmage With The Jets Did Not Go Well.....
Saturday night was the Jets Green and White scrimmage at MetLife. Was awesome to see fans back in the stadium after a long year without them. All eyes were on Zach Wilson, anddddd it did not go great:
There is no better time to overreact than your QB of the future's 1st scrimmage, but I'm going to do the rational thing and just breathe. DJ Biene-Aime II over at The Daily News did provide some good perspective outside of just the "well, it was his first scrimmage!" point of view:
Overall, it was a rough day for the offense. Too many three and outs, and the Wilson-led group only produced one field goal during team drills.
But the starting offense struggling doesn’t fall solely on Wilson.
The offensive line didn’t create many holes for the running backs to burst through, like they have throughout training camp. There were dropped passes from his tight ends and receivers too. One pass hit Trevon Wesco in the chest before slipping through and hitting the turf. The pass protection was below average, as they allowed a few sacks on Wilson (though he remained upright in the red non-contact jersey of course). There was miscommunication on a couple routes with Corey Davis.
Not that I'm breaking any news here, but everything about the Jets needs to get better this year....however, the offensive line needs to take a step forward for anything to work.
Ranking dead last in pass blocking according to PFF last year is not going to cut it in year 1 of Wilson. Mekhi Becton's 76.0 PFF pass blocking grade last year was among the few bright spots for the Jets (70 is average) and anything less than that at LT will be disastorous. Adding in Alijah Vera-Tucker at LG next to Becton will solidify the left side of the line for the Jets from a pass blocking perspective, as Vera-Tucker was a top 10-15 pass blocker in the nation during his time at USC.
The offensive line as a whole wasn't particularly bad run blocking last year (20th according to PFF) and adding Moses Morgan (#7 in run blocking last year among tackles) from Washington will only help. Connor McGovern wasn't great at Center and neither was Greg Van Roten at RG, but appears to theyll both be starting week 1. A strong offensive line is a major key to a young QBs success and the Jets appear to have a decent one at the moment.
The rookie had a few moments, but the bad plays outweighed the good.
Like when Wilson was fooled and threw a pick right to Javelin Guidry. Or when he threw into traffic to Jamison Crowder over the middle and Joyner broke up the pass and the ball fell into C.J. Mosley’s hands. Or when Wilson tried to hit Elijah Moore on a curl route, but the ball died, smacked the ground and arrived at Moore’s feet.
Wilson is a work in progress and that was expected. All eyes will be on him this preseason and season to see if he was worth a #2 pick. What doesn't help is how bad Denzel Mims has been playing:
He may not be cut, but Mims has not been practicing with the 1st or 2nd team in practice, but the 3rd team…
For now, the receiving core is looking like: Corey Davis, Jamison Crowder, Vyncint Smith, Elijah Moore, Keenan Cole, and Braxton Barrios. Although, Mims was listed with the 2nd team in their 1st released depth chart:
On the TE side of things, Chris Herndon hasn't been playing great, but he is still the #1 TE. The hype will always be there with him, but until he puts it all together? He'll be a disappointment.