Fear Not, Jets Fans – the Players Are Just As Frustrated As You Are
For New York Jets fans, this was FINALLY supposed to be THE YEAR! And then Aaron Rodgers went down with a season-ending injury and now frustration is at an all-time high. Zack Rosenblatt covers the Jets for The Athletic and as he tells Jim Monaghan, the players are just as frustrated as the fans, and a lot of that frustration is being thrown in the direction of Zach Wilson.
JIM MONAGHAN – He covers the Jets for The Athletic – Zack Rosenblatt joins us this morning here at 105.5 WDHA on the Morning Jolt. Zack, we saw some frustration over the weekend on the sidelines against the Patriots. So let me ask you, what was the mood like in the locker room after the game?
ZACK ROSENBLATT – I think I do sense a level of frustration. I will say a lot of Zach Wilson’s teammates have said the right things at the mic, but I think it’s pretty clear that a lot of the star players, especially guys like Garrett Wilson, they feel like they’re not necessarily being put in the best positions. Whether it’s because of the quarterback player, or the play calling. I definitely think there’s some frustration because this team thinks they’re talented enough to win a lot of games and they’re being held back by the quarterback again. And whether they’re going to admit that publicly, I think they all know it.
JM – Yeah, I don’t think they’re going to admit it publicly for a while, at least. I mean, Robert Saleh the other day said the box score doesn’t always tell the whole story, and he’s right. But we don’t have just one or two games worth of box scores with Zach Wilson. We’re into our third season now. How did they get it so wrong?
ZR – Yeah, and that’s a question that this franchise is going to have to reckon with for a long time because he’s become one of the biggest failures of a number two overall pick, maybe ever. I think ultimately, first, when he was a rookie, they put him in before he was ready, and they didn’t bring in any competition, which I think was the wrong move. And then last year, he lost his confidence and they benched him twice. And that didn’t necessarily help anything, though it was hard to blame him. And then it got to a point where now he just doesn’t play like a guy who belongs in the NFL right now. Like, he has not shown that. I think the goal was to have him sit and watch this year. They were not planning to play him. And so when Aaron Rodgers got hurt four plays in, they were thrown for a loop, and I don’t think they’ve handled it particularly well.
JM – You wrote the other day about some options the Jets might consider, Matt Ryan being one of them. And he made it pretty clear he doesn’t want any parts of being with the Jets.
ZR – I think the biggest mistake they’ve made here was not signing somebody as soon as Aaron Rodgers went down. I think the idea was that it would hurt Zach Wilson’s confidence, but not signing one didn’t exactly help his confidence either. So I think that was a poor roster management move. You could have brought somebody in at that point. They learn the offense, and then by now you’d be able to put them in to replace Zach Wilson. But they don’t have a third quarterback in the building, and I don’t know if that’s going to matt Ryan clearly is not going to be the option. I don’t know if it’ll be Carson Wentz or like somebody like that. It’s not going to be anybody exciting, but they need to bring somebody in because what they have right now is just not good enough for a team that should be a playoff team.
JM – How much of an upgrade do think someone like a Wentz would be?
ZR – I mean, considering Zach Wilson by every measure, has been the worst starting quarterback in the NFL, I think it would be a pretty significant upgrade. Whatever you think of Carson Wentz, and I’m not particularly high himon , you know, he’s been kind of thrown out of three different teams that traded for him. And so I don’t know that he’s a great locker room guy or all that, but as a quarterback, statistically, he’s significantly better than Zach Wilson. And they need confidence at quarterback, and he, at the very least, should be able to bring that if they were to bring them in.
JM – And the schedule doesn’t get any easier with the Kansas City Chiefs on the horizon. What are your thoughts on that game?
ZR – Yeah, I mean, it’s going to be Sunday Night Football in front of the whole nation with Zach Wilson at quarterback. It kind of makes me think of last year when Zach had a start, two games when Mike White got hurt. First the Lions game, which went poorly, and then he went into the Jaguars game where everybody was going to watch it. And it was about as big of a disaster as you could see. And they benched him for a practice squad quarterback. And that’s kind of like the feeling I have going to this game. Like the Jets ar… it’s early in the season this time, but they view themselves as a playoff team. And if they go and get embarrassed on national TV, it’s going to be hard to justify a lot of things like keeping Zach in the game.
JM – I wonder if anybody else’s teeth will fall out. That had to be one of the funniest moments. And I felt so bad for the guy, Zach. I mean, here he is, all he wants to do is watch his team play football and he’s in this pouring rain. He’s probably chilled to the bone. He’s frustrated beyond comprehension, and the guy’s teeth fall out on national TV.
ZR – Yeah, that was like the image of Jets fans right now, I would say.
JM – You can follow him on Twitter or X, whatever we’re calling it these days, @ZackBlatt and read Zack Rosenblatt in The Athletic as he covers the Jets. Zach, thank you so much for your time this morning here on WDHA.
ZR – Yeah, thanks for having me.
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