It’s official: Joe Flacco is the Jets’ starter at quarterback Week 1, and probably also for Weeks 2 and 3 at the very least.
Head coach Robert Saleh confirmed Flacco’s status for Sunday in his press briefing Wednesday, and later said that Zach Wilson, who is still recovering from knee surgery last month, won’t play at all in September, his earlier return Week 4 (Oct. 2) in Pittsburgh.
“Obviously with everything with the quarterbacks that we made the decision that he's [Wilson] not quite ready and we're rolling with Joe," Saleh said of Wilson. “He won’t play until he is 110 percent, and that goes mentally and physically."
Wilson suffered a partial meniscus tear and bone bruise in the preseason opener against Philadelphia and his timeline was originally optimistic at two-to-four weeks, but it looks like the Jets are playing it safe and extending that absence to seven.
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"We are going to make sure that both mind and body are 110 percent, and make sure we do right by him," Saleh said. "We feel like, after talking to the doctors and everyone, it's going to be that Pittsburgh week. After all the information gathering, it's not worth the risk in terms of getting him out there.”
And alluding to the “mental and physical” line, Saleh said a lot went into the decision.
“There's the knee element, there's the mind element, there's the practice element, there's just a whole lot of things other than the knee,” Saleh said. “He hasn't had a setback. He looks fantastic, he still looks good, he feels good, and he's not walking with a limp or anything."
The Jets will not place Wilson on IR so he can practice with the team, and the team does have Chris Streveler on the practice squad as an emergency third QB if needed behind Flacco and Mike White.
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Wilson will work with trainers this week and slowly get back to practicing, according to Saleh, and once again, the long game is being played for Wilson’s long-term health.
"He's a competitor; if you ask him, he will genuinely tell you that he can probably play this week," Saleh said. "But at the same time, this is a long game, he's a young man and we don't want anything happening to that knee. From my understanding, once the bruise heals he's going to be fine; when that thing is 100 percent healthy he'll be good to go."
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