After having a night to sleep on it, Robert Saleh seems to have woken up with no change of heart in regards to who his starting quarterback will be in Sunday night’s crucial game against the mighty Chiefs.
In fact, Saleh seemed even more dug in on Monday that Zach Wilson will remain the starter.
“He's our unquestioned quarterback,” Saleh told reporters Monday afternoon. “As long as he continues to show, his preparation, the way he’s been practicing, and even in these games guys, he’s not the reason why we lost yesterday. It’s always a team effort. As long as he continues to show improvement - and I know it’s not, from a box score standpoint, it’s not showing - he’s gonna be our quarterback.”
Asked about Wilson’s struggles on Sunday, throwing for just 157 yards and failing to move the offense in the fourth quarter despite three chances at a game-winning drive in the final three-plus minutes, Saleh pointed to Wilson’s continued improvements in practice, and in the game despite it not showing up in the box score.
“One thing I’m gonna give him credit for is that he had a turnover-free game yesterday,” Saleh said. “He had no turnover-worthy throws, from my recollection. And because of that we were in position, and had the ball at midfield with 1:40 to go and two timeouts to go win the game, because we played a clean game of football on the offensive side of the ball.”
Of course, the Jets have shown before that they can lose confidence in Wilson, as he was benched twice just last year, leading to Mike White and Chris Streveler seeing time at quarterback, and leading to Gang Green’s pursuit of Aaron Rodgers this offseason. But again, Saleh pointed to Wilson’s improvements.
“The word benching, there's context to it, right?” Saleh said. “With regard to Zach, I know it's going to go on deaf ears, but what we see on a day to day basis is much improved on what we saw a year ago. He's improved. He's getting better. He's going through his progressions.”
One subject Saleh did seem to change course on a bit was the possibility of bringing in a veteran quarterback as early as this week, though that quarterback would only back up Wilson, based on what Saleh has said since Rodgers’ Achilles injury.
“That one is a Joe [Douglas] question,” Saleh said.