Jets' head coach Robert Saleh applauds 'resilient' Zach Wilson's 'tremendous amount of growth'
The Jets game on Sunday night against the Kansas City Chiefs had a little bit of everything. There was drama, intrigue, controversy and even a slew of celebrities watching it all unfold as New York eventually lost, 23-20.
With a day to decompress and evaluate what went right and what went wrong, head coach Robert Saleh once again supported his quarterback Zach Wilson, who had his best game of the season against the reigning Super Bowl champions and who began to show real signs of improvement, especially after a slow start to the game.
“I’m pumped for him, I’m pumped for the locker room,” Saleh said. “I think everyone sees it, and to go out and show that you’re capable of it is a whole other thing… He’s 100 percent taken a big leap forward and he’s been awesome. He’s been awesome all training camp, been awesome through OTA’s.”
Despite the loss, Wilson completed 28-of-39 passes for 245 yards and threw for two touchdowns and zero interceptions. He also converted on a two-point conversion attempt that tied the game at 20 and played better than Patrick Mahomes in every statistical passing category, the first player to ever do that.
When speaking highly of his quarterback, Saleh also brought up the amount of adversity Wilson has already faced during his complex history with the organization – the one that drafted him No. 2 overall to be the face of the franchise before making him take a backseat twice in two seasons and now needing him to be the hero once again.
“He is a resilient individual, he truly is and I think he’s had a tremendous amount of growth over the last year,” Saleh said.
He added: “When he is fast and he speeds it up and he just lets it rip, he’s pretty damn accurate and he’s pretty darn good.”
Nevertheless, New York lost the game thanks to an eight-minute drive by the Chiefs in the fourth quarter – aided by questionable flags and non-calls that went Kansas City’s way – that sealed it.
One of those flags came on Sauce Gardner on a play that would’ve resulted in an interception that would’ve given the Jets a chance to either tie or win the game. Gardner was called for a holding penalty well after the ball was picked off and was incredulous during and after the game, as was Saleh who was visibly upset during the game.
When asked what he saw on that play a day later, the head coach paused for a while before saying, “I’ll just leave that one alone until I get a chance to get clarification.”
As a drive as a whole, which also featured a very blatant holding penalty on Kansas City against Jermaine Johnson that wasn’t called, Saleh called it “bizarre” and channeled his inner Lemony Snicket.
“A series of unfortunate events,” he said. “It was a seven-and-a-half-minute drive that was aided by non-calls, calls. It was just bizarre. I don’t know if I’ve ever been a part of a drive like that to end a football game. Especially a game like that on national television. Unfortunate. I’m still trying to understand what we could’ve done better and we’re still trying to figure out how we can coach things better. Like I said, we’ll get clarification and we’ll go from there.”
With a bad taste in their mouth after that loss, New York will now travel to Denver to take on the Broncos whose head coach, Sean Payton, created headlines during training camp when he called out former Broncos head coach and current Jets offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett’s poor performance as head coach last season.
Will that be a story come Sunday?
“Whatever was said back in training camp, in a football life that was like 20 years ago so that’s a non-topic,” Saleh said. “But for Hackett, obviously it’s gonna be a personal feel to go back to that locker room.”
