Robert Saleh walks a tightrope in defense of Zach Wilson … but should he? | Inside Coverage
Yahoo Sports' Charles Robinson, Jori Epstein and Jason Fitz break down the brutal situation the Jets find themselves in on the quarterback front, as Robert Saleh seeks to find a balance between protecting Zach Wilson and maintaining the respect of the rest of New York’s locker room. Hear the full conversation on Zero Blitz. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
JASON FITZ: Obviously, Jets fans are freaking out about it. But maybe they should also be freaking about what Head Coach Robert Saleh had to say. Check out Coach's comments about Zach Wilson.
ROBERT SALEH: And even in these games, guys, like he's not the reason why we lost yesterday. It's always a team effort. And as long as he continues to show improvement, and I know it's not, from a box score standpoint, it's not showing anything-- it's not showing, he's going to be our quarterback.
CHARLES ROBINSON: The danger you get into with Salah is you fall back into what happened in 2022. You cannot continue to say or make it feel like there's less responsibility on Zach or we're going to share the responsibility constantly. Because at some point, you get a defense that goes, we're out there doing everything we can. We're killing ourselves to try and win a game. We just need a guy to be able to move us in position for a field goal or we just need a guy to be able to put together one drive that can ultimately change the face of this game.
And Zach is struggling and has not been able to do that. He's walking a tightrope, Robert Saleh is. And we've seen the reports out there now in the last 24 hours that, supposedly, some frustration on the end of the defense.
I don't discount that. I think it's natural. Of course, there would be frustration amongst individuals.
What you don't want it to slip into is what it slipped into last year, which was almost outright defiance and disrespect of Zach Wilson when they moved to Mike White. And you had people in the locker room, basically, throwing a ticker tape parade. The reason why the Jets are walking this tightrope right now is that I think they know if you bench Zach now, it's done. OK, there is no resurrecting Zach Wilson at that point.
JORI EPSTEIN: In terms of bringing other quarterbacks in-- and yes, they brought Trevor Siemian in as a potential veteran option --you still have a really-- you have a pretty significant offensive line, and particularly pass protection issues. And quarterbacks can only do so much. And a quarterback coming in without that sort of background in this offense can only do so much.
JASON FITZ: My only argument is that all of this was predictable. All of this was avoidable. And all of this is the Jets fault.
Court of public opinion was already out on Zach Wilson. They should have gotten rid of him. They should have kept White and got rid of Wilson this summer.