Three weeks ago, Zach Wilson was benched by the Jets. He'll be back on the field Sunday against the Lions.
The Jets have ruled out incumbent starting quarterback Mike White after he injured his ribs in last Sunday's loss to the Bills and are turning to Wilson in a huge game against Detroit, according to Adam Schefter.
Jets head coach Robert Saleh told reporters Friday morning that Wilson got most of the practice reps this week as the team prepared for this possibility and called it "a great opportunity" for the former No. 2 pick.
Dan Campbell, likewise, said the Lions were prepared for Wilson to get the call and game-planned with that in mind.
"We're ready," he said. "We knew he was going into the game anyway, so we figured they were going to play him. It's really the same thing. It's about being disciplined. We know what kind of game this will be and what they're going to want to do offensively."
Drafted last year as the Jets' franchise quarterback, Wilson started this season injured and then threw four touchdowns and five picks with a passer rating of 72.6 in his first seven games. He was replaced by White after completing just nine passes in the Jets' 10-3 loss to the Patriots in Week 11 after which Wilson said he didn't feel like he had let down his defense -- a comment for which he later apologized to the team.
White, a fifth-round pick of the Cowboys in 2018, went 1-2 in his three starts, with a passer rating of 85.8. Now it's back to Wilson, who will try to keep the Jets' playoff hopes alive against a team with playoff hopes of its own. The surging Lions have won five of their last six.
"I'm sure he's a competitor, like most players in this league, so he'll want to go out there and play well," said Campbell. "He's certainly talented. And they'll have a good game plan designed for him to where he can succeed and they can get it to their weapons and control the game and play good defense.
"They're going to try to take the pressure off of him as much as possible and just let him be him, use his talents and his skills."
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