The first admission from the Jets about possible mishandling Zach Wilson has surfaced.
It came shortly before 11 a.m. on Thursday, three days before the Jets’ season finale at the Dolphins. It came in the form of a mea culpa from offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur, who has been nothing if not accountable in his two seasons with the team.
“For two years, we haven’t done our job with him,’’ LaFleur said. “Any player at any position that isn’t producing to the level they’re capable of, as a coach you’ve failed them. There’s a two-way street with it — the player’s got to meet you in the middle with it.
“But you want all these guys to play at their best, [and] we all know that Zach, he hasn’t played at his absolute best. He’s shown spurts, shown his talent, but it’s like [head coach Robert Saleh said Monday] through hell or high water we’re going to work with him, and it’s not going to stop.’’
With speculation rampant about the Jets potentially parting ways with Wilson after this season, Saleh has insisted that Wilson remains a part of the team’s plans in ’23 and beyond, something LaFleur echoed.
One of the most eye-opening admissions from LaFleur on Thursday came when he conceded that “in hindsight’’ perhaps the team shouldn’t have handed the starting quarterback job to Wilson as a rookie last season, that perhaps it would have been better for his development to sit behind a veteran and learn.
Wilson, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2021 draft, has struggled in his two NFL seasons and remains the biggest question mark for the team in 2023.
“For Zach, in hindsight it probably would have benefitted him to sit back and learn a little bit and watch a veteran do it and just kind of grow in this league in the backseat watching, and getting better in practice and better through scout team,’’ LaFleur said in what is the first admission by the team that its handling of Wilson wasn’t ideal. “But that wasn’t the course that we went. From here, we’ve got to pick it up, we’ve got to pick up the scraps and get back to work.’’
Wilson has been benched twice this season because of poor performance and isn’t expected to be in uniform Sunday, with Mike White expected to start and Joe Flacco the No. 2.
Wilson has played in 22 career games, has an 8-14 record, completed just 55.2 percent of his passes for 4,022 yards, 15 TDs and 18 INTs.
LaFleur indicated that Wilson’s promising performance in preseason last year perhaps proved to be a mirage.
“I think everyone wanted to crown him after that first preseason,” LaFleur said. “He was playing pretty good football through that. We’re going to have to look back and see what … not necessarily red flags, but what indicators were there that said he wasn’t ready. We’ve just got to learn from it and we will.”
Asked how he thinks Wilson will handle the challenges ahead, LaFleur said, “He’s just going to work.’’
“When I’ve talked with him, that’s his deal is: I’ve been through rough patches before, maybe not this level but to get through it I’ve just worked hard,’’ LaFleur went on. “He’s battled before, and he’s going to battle through this.’’
Wilson has declined interviews, on Wednesday telling reporters he didn’t want to do any media when he’s not playing and isn’t required to make himself available.
Asked about how difficult it’ll be for Wilson, who’s already been labeled a failure by many, to come back from this and navigate his way through the criticism, LaFleur said, “That’s what you sign up for,’’ adding, “You want to be a quarterback in this league, you want be a coordinator, you want to be a head coach, you want to be a player in this league, when things aren’t going well you’re going to hear it.
“You sign up for that. He’s man enough. He’ll be able to bounce back from that and he’ll have time to reflect and think about it and how he’s going to stand up to it.’’