Saleh Can’t Take Ball From Flacco If Jets Slay Bengals
The defending AFC champion Bengals are unlikely to make the same mistake as last season by overlooking the lowly Jets on Sunday the way they did when they last took the field at Met Life Stadium, which resulted in a 34-31 Halloween horror show. After starting this season at 0-2, Cincinnati is not expected to give up their throne so meekly and there are a host of other reasons why Las Vegas has made the Bengals 5-point favorites on the road over New York.
However, weird things seem to be happening all the time in the NFL. Not only did the previously unheralded Mike White pop off the Jets’ bench in place of injured starter Zach Wilson to throw for 405 yards to spark that particular Jets’ upset victory last season, another backup, Joe Flacco, somehow drove New York to two touchdowns in the last 1:30 to resurrect a lost cause and stun the host Browns, 31-30, just last Sunday while Wilson has been mending his latest knee injury.
Flacco may not have any more miracles left in his 37-year old arm, but the Any Given Sunday rule still applies. And if he does manage to secure another win to lift New York to 2-1, what then?
Wilson has been ramping up at practice this week, according to Jets Head Coach Robert Saleh, with the intention of getting cleared for contact in time for Week 4’s tilt at Pittsburgh. All Saleh would say on the quarterback matter when asked in Wednesday’s press conference if there was any scenario where Flacco would keep his job post Wilson’s activation was that Wilson is the team’s future and will play when he’s ready.
No arguments here, and Saleh deserves the standard coach’s right not to make any decisions until he has to. The last thing this team needs after such a rousing victory is a QB controversy.
The true answer, though, is a no-brainer and shouldn’t be controversial at all: Saleh can’t remove Flacco if the Jets are holding a winning record for the first time since their opening night victory over the Lions in Sam Darnold’s debut in 2018.
For all of my beefs with Saleh as a game manager, the team does seem to enjoy playing for him. For the first time since probably the Rex Ryan era, NFL players, particularly those on defense, aren’t coming here just for the money. They seem to genuinely believe in what he’s trying to build here. He isn’t Adam Gase.
The surest way for Saleh to start losing the locker room, though, would be if he chooses his quarterback, the most important position in all of sports, by any way outside of merit. It would be an implicit acknowledgement that the organization doesn’t prioritize winning. It’s not like it’s Russell Wilson who is coming back to reclaim the starter’s job; it’s Zach Wilson, who is coming off an awful rookie season.
Facing the Steelers on the road wouldn’t exactly be the ideal environment to reintroduce Wilson to the pressures of the job anyway. He hasn’t had a live rep since he ignorantly opted to cut inside on a scramble on Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field turf in the preseason opener on August 12, tearing his meniscus and suffering a bone bruise. Pittsburgh, even with star edge rusher T.J. Watt sidelined, would surely send waves of blitzers in an attempt to make him jittery in the pocket.
The advantage of playing a hot Flacco would be that his extensive experience means he could better process what is coming than a player who posted the worst completion percentage (29.3%, minimum 100 dropbacks) in the league last season when under pressure, per ProFootballFocus.com. Flacco rebounded from a lousy outing when harassed in the opener against Baltimore by completing 8-of-15 passes for 141 yards and a touchdown when pressured by the vaunted Browns front, including 5-of-8 for 38 yards and a touchdown when blitzed.
Not that facing the blitz-happy Dolphins in Week 5 will be any easier on Wilson. However, there is still the matter of “who gives us the best chance to win on Sunday.” If the Jets are 2-1 before taking on Pittsburgh, in no way can you argue that the answer is anyone but Flacco.
Again, this could all be moot if the Bengals take care of business on Sunday. The Jets had their euphoric moment earlier than anyone expected in Cleveland, but it shouldn’t change anyone’s perception of who they are. With such a daunting upcoming schedule, their prospects for this season remain dim. Even Flacco understands that his time in the New York spotlight will be short-lived.
As such, Saleh is correct that the organization needs to find out exactly what they have in Wilson so they can continue building for the future. By season’s end, they must know whether he’s The Guy or he’s not The Guy. And if after however many games he plays the Jets still don’t know the answer, then he’s not The Guy, and they need to start over anyway.
No one should worry about a delay in the process, though; the Wilson diaries will surely return soon enough.
Prediction: Bengals 34 Jets 20