What are we to make of Zach Wilson now?
Can we get back to you on that?
The former BYU quarterback receives his second chance, as of this week, in Denver. Or is it his third or fourth chance? Or given the messed-over state of offensive affairs with the New York Jets, is this now his first real chance to be an NFL quarterback?
I really don’t know and maybe nobody knows, although many observers seem pretty convinced that the former BYU star has been nothing short of a bust, a waste of a No. 2 overall pick in the 2021 draft. And the conditions of Wilson’s trade to the Broncos confirm that.
Denver acquired the services of Wilson, along with a seventh-round draft pick, in exchange for a sixth-round pick. That’s how low the former Cougar has fallen. No. 2 overall for No. 203 overall. Man, it’s been a tough three years for Wilson, a time during which he was handed the starter’s job in New York, a job that was eventually taken away as the offense nosedived and the team flopped. Has beens and no names replaced him. A future Hall of Famer replaced him, then got hurt, sending Wilson back into the fire, but thereafter, he struggled more — with injuries, with lousy game-planning and play-calling, with a sieve of an offensive line, with exposed entitlement, with embarrassment, with the kind of general play that gets an NFL quarterback downgraded, disrespected and sent into a bin of other sorry pro QBs whose run — no, whose crash and burn — is better forgotten than remembered.
Some want to defend Wilson, including a number of his former teammates, while others, including a number of his former teammates, are glad to be done with the baby-faced prince who would have been king, but … no, he wouldn’t.
Not on Broadway.
It’s easy to blame the Jets for their track record of picking once-prized college quarterbacks and then ruining them. It’s what the Jets do. And it’s part of what they did with Wilson. A new head coach, an inexperienced offensive coordinator who was clueless, offensive personnel sent out to surround him that were a young quarterback’s nightmare. And the win-loss record and Wilson’s stats and passer ratings, as well as his overall persona on the field, are classic exhibits of a quarterback who was overwhelmed and just plain shook.
He looked the opposite of what he was and did at BYU, during the season that placed him on a rocket to ride, a season during which the Cougars mostly torched subpar competition. But Wilson gave the appearance that year of a seasoned signal-caller whose comfort zone and confidence could not be diminished or doubted. He was the man.
In New York, he was just a boy. A lost boy pretending to be something he wasn’t. There were occasional glimpses of his former glory, moments where arm talent and off-script savvy shined through. There were other times that must have been difficult for BYU fans to watch, times when Wilson’s confidence was shot, his abilities buried back at LaVell Edwards Stadium. If he could ever smooth the ride, he might yet be the quarterback optimists thought he was destined to be.
Again, even in hindsight it’s hard to tell what specifically ate him alive. Was it the bright lights of the Big Apple and the pressure that comes along with them? Was it the Jets’ organizational ineptitude? Was it his inability to drop back like a normal QB, set his feet and spin spirals to receivers who would actually catch them, without having to run for his life because nobody on the Jets knew how to delay defensive pressure? Was it simply because Wilson can’t play?
Well. Let’s say it this way: Folks who coach and evaluate talent around the NFL for a living, as mentioned, were hardly scurrying about for a chance to trade for Wilson, once it was made public that the Jets were allowing him to seek a trade. Other quarterbacks were acquired long before the Broncos gave up the little they did for Wilson. Did we make note that the Jets will pay half of the quarterback’s salary over the next season?
All of which writes out a disaster of a story for Zach Wilson. Or … it sets up the perfect tale of redemption. If he shows strong in Denver, sports a hungry and humble attitude, reaches out to his teammates, studies the schemes, utilizes his brain and his arm, both working diligently and settling in, he might just have a chance, one more chance to climb through the ruins of reclamation to prove he belongs.
The Broncos are short on quarterbacks, something they’ve been ever since Peyton left the place, and now they have Jarrett Stidham. There’s been talk that they might draft a quarterback in the days ahead, but with the 12th overall pick, team officials have said they have too many other needs to … what’s this, waste a pick on a QB who can’t help them?
If Wilson reshapes himself from waste to warrior in Denver, it will be the kind of narrative nobody will want to forget. If he demonstrates more of the same, his name and game will be what nobody will remember, whether they want to or not.
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