Rock: Zach Wilson isn't just the young quarterback stumbling out of the gate

Zach Wilson will return to MetLife Stadium with the Broncos on Sunday to fill the exact position he held at the end of his tenure with the Jets.

He will sit on the bench.

Wilson, who was released by the Jets in the offseason and signed by the Broncos, is one of two backup quarterbacks behind rookie starter Bo Nix. And while he probably won't have much of an impact on this game, there is at least one former teammate who is looking forward to welcoming him back.

“I still keep an eye on him and stay in touch here and there,” Aaron Rodgers said last week. “I love Zach and I've always looked at him like a little brother. I enjoyed our time together on and off the field and wish him every success. I was really happy for him with how he finished preseason and I think this will be a good year for him to recalibrate and hopefully he gets a chance down the road.”

If that happens — and there are still plenty of reasons and legitimate reservations why it might never happen — he certainly won't be the first Jets quarterback to fail early in his career, get thrown away, and reemerge somewhere else to succeed .

In fact, there are two quarterbacks from currently undefeated teams who fit the same profile: Geno Smith with the Seahawks and Sam Darnold with the Vikings.

Another unlikely undefeated quarterback this season is the Steelers' Justin Fields, who was jettisoned by the Bears in favor of first overall pick Caleb Williams.

Then there's Baker Mayfield. And Kirk Cousins. Jared Goff and Matthew Stafford actually swapped places, representing a rare win-win situation for the players and their teams.

While it's fun to focus primarily on the young hotshot draft picks and watch their waves of success and failure, the league is full of high-profile and very to moderately successful quarterbacks who have been passed up by one for one reason or another previous team. Even Rodgers himself can fall into this category. The Jets didn't necessarily need to keep him away from the Packers.

It all reveals a glaring hole in the way not just the Jets, but NFL teams in general, conduct business at what is arguably the most important position in sports. There is a lack of patience when it comes to nurturing the quarterbacks they draft.

“Overall, the organization's role in the development of the position is under-emphasized,” said Vikings coach Kevin O'Connell – who is reaping the rewards of Darnold's recent renaissance while the rookie he drafted, JJ McCarthy, is out for the season a knee injury — said last week on “The Rich Eisen Show.” “I believe that organizations will fail young quarterbacks before young quarterbacks will fail organizations.”

Hall of Famer Troy Aikman is concerned about the trend.

“There are a lot of quarterbacks, and I think I would have been one of them, but there are a lot of quarterbacks that come into this league that are really talented that just get into a really bad situation and leave the game “A bust.” said Aikman. “If we had continued like we did when I came into the league, I would have been one of those considered a bust.”

Whether the Jets failed Wilson, Darnold and Smith or vice versa is certainly debatable. But here's a thought exercise: Given their defensive performances over the last three seasons, would the Jets have ever made the playoffs if they had stuck with Darnold instead of signing Wilson? There's probably more than a pretty good chance.

Ironically, the coach who ousted Darnold in favor of Wilson is one of the more passionate advocates of retaining such players. Robert Saleh was a steadfast defender of Wilson during his first draft pick's short, disappointing tenure here, and he continues to be one.

“I still stand here and believe that he's going to have a heck of a career and that he's going to get a chance and be a very successful quarterback in this league,” Saleh said last week. “Sometimes you get thrown into the fire and try to learn, but you don’t have the patience to learn. You're expected to come straight out of the womb and speak five languages, but that takes time, especially coming from the college game, which has become so different from the NFL game in terms of what quarterbacks do. “

Ideally, of course, Wilson wouldn't have played for the Jets at all last year and would have had the opportunity to watch, learn and grow had Rodgers not been injured on the first possession of the season. Wilson had to be recalled to duty. Turns out gaming made him expendable.

At some point, drafting quarterbacks may be the foolish approach to finding a championship-contending quarterback. In the last nine Super Bowls, the winning quarterback was traded from another team four times. That's almost half. And the five titles won by local quarterbacks were Tom Brady with his last two in New England and Patrick Mahomes with three in Kansas City, two outstanding players.

Maybe it's wiser to add a veteran with some measurable NFL skills and experience rather than rolling the dice on a 20-year-old kid.

“You still recruit players with potential,” O'Connell said, “and then everything that happens from that moment to realizing that potential really depends on the organization if you have the right guy that you bring in. “

As Nick Foles polishes his ring after bouncing around the league, many of the best quarterbacks drafted in the last decade – picks no one would object to – include Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Justin Herbert, Jordan Love and Dak Prescott – there Everyone is waiting to reach their first Super Bowl. Of them, only Jackson has even played in a conference championship game.

This year's Jets team is the latest team to try to win it all, with a quarterback who wasn't found in the April draft but in the league's trash can. At least that's what they hope. . . even as her coach voices a philosophical objection to the strategy.

“Hopefully we get to the point where we show these little kids a little grace and give them a chance to thrive, rather than the other way around,” Saleh said. “Some people look at (drafting a quarterback) like a lottery ticket and some teams look at it like a long-term investment. “I think a long-term investment is the only way to go.”

In the meantime, it's all about who will be the first to lift a trophy: the Jets or one of their many former quarterbacks who are in the process of overcoming unfortunate starts to their careers.

Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He was previously a beat writer for Newsday's Giants from 2008.