Zach Wilson will get the ball for the New York Jets again.
Head coach Robert Saleh announced Wednesday that Wilson will start Sunday’s home game against the Houston Texans.
“Zach gives us our best chance to win,” Saleh said. “Giving him another opportunity to go prove that.”
The move back to Wilson comes two weeks after the Jets benched the former first-round pick in favor of Tim Boyle. Gang Green demoted Wilson to third-string QB the past two games, with Boyle getting the start and veteran Trevor Siemian as the backup.
After the Boyle experiment failed miserably, leading to the QB’s release on Tuesday, and Siemian showed no better in a relief appearance, the Jets will give Wilson another shot at redemption.
“It was good,” Saleh said of the conversation with Wilson. “He’s fired up. Like I said on Monday, he came into my office, he wants the ball. He’s excited about getting this opportunity.”
On Monday, Saleh refuted a report suggesting Wilson was reluctant to return to the starting lineup.
Two days later, Wilson is back in the saddle.
The former No. 2 overall pick has struggled to move the ball after taking the reins from Aaron Rodgers following an Achilles tear on the season’s opening drive. In 10 games, including nine starts, Wilson has completed 59.2% of his passes for 1,944 yards, six touchdowns, and seven interceptions while losing five fumbles.
Between the briefest flashes of playmaking — see: Chiefs game — the 24-year-old passer struggled to make the right reads, missed too many easy tosses, displayed crumbling pocket presence, and at times appeared reluctant to pull the trigger. But Wilson is one of many issues with the Jets offense, which has sported head-scratching and unimaginative play-calling, woeful offensive line play, a nonexistent run game, and, outside of Garrett Wilson, little receiver support.
Saleh stood firm behind Wilson early in the season despite the struggles before the Week 12 benching. Now that it’s evident the other options are worse, Gang Green will ask Wilson to take the lead again.
Asked if he envisions Wilson being the starter the rest of the way, Saleh responded: “God willing.”
With New York sitting at 4-8, 14th in the AFC, Wilson will have the next five weeks to pilot a careening jet that hopes to avoid a gruesome crash to end the 2023 season.
