FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — By the time Zach Wilson jogs onto the field for his first practice on Friday morning, no one will care that he missed the first two practices of camp. In the long run, his silly standoff with the Jets, won’t even be a footnote in the story of his career.
There’s only one thing that matters now for the Jets’ new franchise quarterback and its latest savior: He needs to prove he’s as great as the Jets think he can be.
And he needs to do it fast.
If that sounds like a lot to put on the shoulders of a 21-year-old who has yet to endure a real practice in the NFL … well, yes, it is. But those have been the stakes since the Jets decided to draft Wilson second overall and ship their last franchise quarterback, Sam Darnold, out of town.
From that moment on, the Jets were all-in on Wilson, so much so they were willing to operate without a safety net. There is no veteran backup on the roster who could serve as a short-term starter and place-holder until Wilson is ready. They have only one plan: For Wilson to start on opening day and hold onto the job for years.
He is simply everything to the Jets’ franchise and their hopes of casting off the pall of a decade of losing. And they want to start that process now.
That’s why it was so important for Jets GM Joe Douglas to find a way to end this stupid holdout and reach the sensible compromise he and Wilson’s agent, Brian Ayrault, should have reached weeks ago. Ayrault should have known he was never going to get the “offset” language out of Wilson’s contract since the Jets have never done a deal without it. And Douglas and his bosses had to figure they’d end up paying Wilson his full signing bonus immediately, with no deferrals, just like they did with Darnold three years ago.
The end game was so obvious they could’ve settled that in five minutes. There was no need for it to drag on this long. The last few days were just bad theater with two sides needlessly holding ground they knew they’d eventually cede. And they maintained their stubborn posture despite the obvious urgency. Because as calm as new head coach Robert Saleh remained through this mini-ordeal, even he conceded on Thursday morning that Wilson had missed “two days too many already.”
With only 18 days left in training camp, their star needs all the practice he can get.
“This young man has a chance to do something special around here that hasn’t been done in a while,” Saleh said. “Every rep matters for him.”
To be fair to Wilson, he really hasn’t missed much. He was present all spring with the Jets, so he had plenty of time to learn the basics of the new offense and work on timing with most of his teammates. He even did a lot of bonding with his new NFL friends, like his trips across the river with his offensive linemen for Islanders playoff games.
And those practices he missed on Wednesday and Thursday were basically nothing. They were two light workouts, not much different from the Jets’ minicamp back in June. The players are still in helmets and shorts. They won’t be in full pads until Monday morning. The real intensive work and studying are coming soon.
But those two days were still a reminder of how important Wilson is to this new era. Even though Saleh dismissed the “outside perception, outside narrative, ‘Same old Jets,’ whatever,” the reality was it was all still there and hovering like a familiar dark cloud. No one was surprised the last unsigned pick in the entire 2021 draft belonged to the Jets, or that they were willing to play negotiating games with their newest star. And while Saleh kept wanting to turn the attention to the 89 other guys on his roster, even he knew the reality was that those 89 were overshadowed by The One.
That’s still the case. Everyone’s eyes will be on Wilson when he takes the field on Friday. It will be the same on Saturday when the Jets open their gates to fans for the first time in two years. Nobody was coming to see Mike White and James Morgan throw passes. Wilson is the biggest attraction on the field.
So now the pressure is on to make sure he doesn’t disappoint. Everyone understands there are always ups and downs with rookie quarterbacks, but the expectations are that his first year will be filled mostly with “ups.” The Jets believe it will be. That’s why they invested so heavily in him and built their rebuilding plan around him.
Now he’s here. The holdout will quickly be forgotten. What won’t be forgotten is if he doesn’t live up to the hype. So all he has to do now is prove he really is the best Jets quarterback since Joe Namath.
In other words, the contract negotiations were the easy part. Now the pressure is really on.