Zach Wilson was not dealt an easy hand this season. To say the least. He had to fill in for Aaron Rodgers after the future Hall of Famer tore his Achilles mere minutes into the New York Jets' home opener and had to battle against a very good Buffalo Bills defense. The Jets won because Wilson didn't screw up majorly outside of one interception. Week 2 did not hold any easier a matchup as Wilson traveled to Dallas to take on a Cowboys defense that straight-up embarrassed the New York Giants the previous week.
And it went exactly as you'd predict. A subpar Jets offensive line could barely get a finger on Micah Parsons, who finished with three sacks. Wilson threw three interceptions, in part because his decision-making hasn't improved dramatically since last year and in part because he was running for his life all game. New York's offense managed only 10 points and the game was never close. Sauce Gardner and Breece Hall both got mad on social media afterwards. It was precisely the sort of disaster-class performance we all pretty much expected to follow the loss of Rodgers.
Shannon Sharpe was asked on First Take if Wilson's performance proved the Jets needed to go outside the building in their search for a QB to take the helm this season. In answering the question he zinged Wilson pretty good and said the young signal-caller "couldn't play dead in a horror movie."
A pretty good line but I am going to go out on a limb and defend Wilson here. He's had many performances worth criticizing to this degree. But getting tortured by this Cowboys defense is not one of those performances. Drawing that unit in his first full game as a starter in a brand-new offense is tough. And his offensive line did him zero favors.
The Jets are going to play a lot of defenses this year that are worse than Dallas. Wilson is not very good and New York should probably find someone else to play QB, but playing bad against one of the league's best defenses is not definitive proof of any of that.
I just wanted to get that out. It doesn't really matter anyway because Wilson is going to get smoked by the Patriots' defense next week (another very good unit) and two horrible performances in a row is going to force the Jets to do something. Even if Wilson did have a tough draw.
This article was originally published on thebiglead as Shannon Sharpe: Zach Wilson Couldn't Play Dead in a Horror Movie .
