How do you go from “all gas, no brake” to “we have to learn to be boring” in the span of two losses?
For Jets head coach Robert Saleh, it’s about his rookie signal-caller, Zach Wilson, continuing to improve every day, but also doing so wisely.
“Sometimes when people hear that whole mantra of ‘all gas, no brake,’ they confuse it with ‘we’re going to turn the corner at 100 mph when the speed limit is 25.’ It’s not that," Saleh said Monday. “It’s just going to bed better than you woke up. That’s it. Put your foot to the pedal and just step on the gas in regards to getting better at what you’re asked to do every single day, and that’s a situation where he has to be better.”
Wilson was picked off four times in Sunday’s 25-6 loss to the Patriots, two in his first two pass attempts, and the Jets were down 10-0 before he completed a pass to a teammate. It got so bad late that Wilson was booed by the MetLife faithful – something he admitted was deserved – while fellow rookie Mac Jones led the Pats to an impressive win.
Sometimes, being boring is best?
“That ‘all gas, no brake’ mantra for Wilson is be boring. It’s not about being electric and making the plays,” Saleh said. “You just trust if you stay ahead of the chains and stay within yourself and you play the game of football and keep the team in an advantageous situation, other teams will panic.”
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And as for going to bed better than he woke up, Wilson can learn a lot from what happened on Sunday.
"He’s gotta quiet his feet down in the pocket, he’s gotta get his eyes where they need to be within the progression of the play and he’s gotta trust," Saleh said. "The O-line did a really good job of protection yesterday and he’s gotta sit in there and play quarterback on a drop-back pass. It’s all a process. Playing quarterback in this league is already hard. Rookie playing quarterback is even harder."
The key, for both the Jets and their fans, is be patient. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and even the best quarterbacks had rough games – as a rookie and as a veteran.
As long as the progress is made, aka going to bed better than you woke up, Saleh will be happy.
“We’ve talked about this from the beginning and I’ve said it here – there will be some hair-pulling moments, but there’s going to be some exciting moments, and unbelievable moments,” Saleh said. “Yesterday was a rough one, but that doesn’t mean that that’s the trend. He’s going to get better from this and there’s going to be moments where it’s like, ‘holy cow, he’s special.’ When we get to those moments, we take them in stride because we continue to get better from all of it.”
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