It is no secret what held the New York Jets back during the 2023 season. While their defense at times didn’t perform up to par, it is hard to place much, if any of the blame on them given how inept their offense was.
New York had championship aspirations coming into the season with Aaron Rodgers as their new starting quarterback. Unfortunately, only four plays into his tenure with the team, those dreams were dashed.
Rodgers suffered what ended up being a season-ending Achilles injury, sending the offense into a tailspin. They had spent the entire offseason tailoring the game plan to him and now he was going to be out of the lineup.
NFL NEWS & RUMORS: Woody Johnson, Zach Wilson, New York Jets Updates
That pushed Zach Wilson back into the starting quarterback role and the results were as disastrous as anyone except the Jets expected. Wilson, the No. 2 pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, looked overmatched once again while in the lineup.
He had a few flashes of competency, but overall, he struggled and proved once again he isn’t an NFL-caliber starting quarterback. Jets’ head coach Robert Saleh opted to bench Wilson at one point, turning to Tim Boyle, who was actually worse.
The Jets turned back to Wilson but that didn’t even last six quarters as he was injured in his second game back and veteran Trevor Seimian took over as the starter the rest of the way. That kind of musical chairs at quarterback is something owner Woody Johnson was not happy about.
At the NFL Honors Award show in Las Vegas on Thursday, Johnson made his first public comments since the end of the regular season. He took a major shot at Wilson, suggesting quarterback is high on the team’s priority list this offseason.
NFL NEWS & RUMORS: Woody Johnson, Zach Wilson, New York Jets Updates
“You need a backup quarterback,” he said. “We didn’t have one last year.”
If there were any people left who thought Wilson had a chance to stick around with the Jets, that probably killed off any hope. Having the owner call you out in that regard is never a good thing, but he is right.
His team put all of their eggs into the Rodgers basket, not even considering that an injury was possible. Hopefully, the Jets learn from what happened in 2023 as it was the second consecutive season Wilson and the offense torpedoed any chances they had at competing.
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