After looking at the game tape of Zach Wilson’s 300-yard, two-touchdown performance in the Jets’ 30-6 win over the Houston Texans on Sunday, Robert Saleh praised his quarterback for being “extremely decisive” in his decision-making.
“He played fast, there were a lot of, ‘Oh, crap,’ moments where I felt like he stayed within the moment and made things work,” the head coach said Monday. “He made a lot of things happen on his own, off schedule. He was really, really good.
“I said it after the game, and just after watching the tape and just looking at it in more detail, it was the best game he played, in my opinion.”
It was just 21 days ago that the third-year quarterback was benched for the third time in his career and it appeared that Wilson’s time in New York was done. When asked Monday if the former No. 2 overall pick could still play his way back into the Jets’ plans for 2024, Saleh was less than decisive.
“Well, anything can happen, especially in this sport,” he said. “It’s like a New York minute, right? It swings from one pendulum to the next.”
The head coach added that Wilson, who will be the Jets’ starter for the final four games of the season barring injury, “just needs to focus on week to week, just putting his best foot forward and just being the best version of him he can be. Like I said, [Sunday] was awesome.”
He added: “To answer your question, we just got to take it one day at a time.”
A report last Friday from the Salt Lake City-based newspaper, the Deseret News, said that the Jets told Wilson he would be traded after the offseason, with Saleh and Wilson agreeing “to a mutual parting” of the ways after the QB’s November benching.
“My conversations with him are to do everything he can to get ready to play a football game,” Saleh said when asked about the validity of that report from Wilson’s home state. “As far as all that other stuff is concerned, those are things I’ll leave for [Jets general manager Joe Douglas].”