Robert Saleh says Zach Wilson will remain Jets starting QB, no changes at play-caller

Robert Saleh said that the team will look at some personnel changes as the Jets look to spark a fledgling offense, but starting quarterback Zach Wilson and offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett will remain in their positions following Sunday night’s loss at Las Vegas.

"Nothing with the quarterback, nothing with the play-caller,” the head coach said Monday after New York failed to score a touchdown for the second straight game.

But there will be a great deal of self-evaluation ahead of other potential personnel changes and changes to how things are done on the offensive side of the ball.

“We’re just looking at things with regards to schematically the things that we can do differently. Trying to continue to find ways to feature more of the things that our guys are comfortable with, obviously, gameplan permitted,” Saleh said. “As far as meetings go, meeting structure, practice habits or practice plans and all that, we’re looking at everything, guys.

“But as far as personnel changes, we’re looking at some personnel changes which I'm going to keep here with me. We’re looking across the board to see if we can find a way to generate some offense.”

Wilson, the third-year pro who was thrust into the starting role four plays into the season after veteran Aaron Rodgers sustained an Achilles injury, has struggled for much of the year, especially in the last few weeks. In Sunday's 16-12 defeat at the Raiders, he completed 23 of 39 attempts for 264 yards with an interception.

“Zach needs to get a lot better, he knows that,” Saleh said. “But to try and pinpoint it all on just one person with everything that’s happening, I don’t see how that’s productive.”

The head coach acknowledged that “you’re always gonna look at the quarterback first, along with the play-caller” when an offense struggles, but making a change for the sake of looking for a jolt is not the best course of action especially as Wilson’s play in his eyes is not deserving of a benching.

“In speaking about Zach, I get it. There’s a yearning for more, or whatever it is,” Saleh said. “But I feel like he played a good game [Sunday]. He’ll admit that he wants that interception back. But it is hard, it is hard to make changes just to make changes. Just to pacify something. Especially when someone’s not deserving.

“If he was deserving of it, I got ya, let’s change something. And that’s really for every position, that’s a coach, that’s a player, it doesn’t matter.”

Saleh added: “You’re always trying to look at ways to make sure that everyone is operating at full go and to say that one person is the reason for everyone failing, I don’t think that’s fair, I don’t think that’s right. But, again, that’s just one man’s opinion.”

For the head coach, making a change at quarterback and benching Wilson for backup Tim Boyle to “get a spark” is not something he believes in doing.

“You’re making a change to make a change to see if it sparks something, I mean, I’ve never felt like making one guy the fall guy is gonna make everyone around them better,” he said. “Now, if there was something that was gonna make things better, yeah, you always look at that. But Zach is actually playing pretty good. He’s much better than he was a year ago.”

Saleh admitted that Wilson is in the first year of a new system and a new system that was “built for Aaron, let’s be real, and now we’re trying to make a shift to get it to where everyone’s comfortable with where we are.”

Wilson “hasn’t been perfect” and there have been some “peaks and valleys” but he believes the 24-year-old has “been doing a good job.”

The sense of urgency to figure out a way for the offense to get points on the board is at a premium, Saleh said, but there's is a fear of being too drastic in making changes to make changes because with multiple changes to the lineup due to injuries, “sometimes guys just need a little bit of time and continuity to give themselves a chance to get their ball rolling.”

“Because it’s not as easy as ‘OK, let’s just plug this guy in and here we go we’re fixed.’ Or ‘That guy right there, let’s plug him in. It’s just not that simple,” he said.

The head coach said it is “natural” for everyone from players, coaches and fans to look for a reason as to why something’s not working, but it is his job to “look at the truth.”

“It is natural for the outside world to blame everyone, obviously starting with the head coach to the play-caller to the quarterback. It’s natural for coaches to look at players, players to look at coaches, everyone to look at everyone. It is very natural in adversity for people to look around them for reasons why success isn’t happening,” Saleh said. “When the reality is you gotta look inward, you gotta look at you first. You gotta look at the whole thing. So, I’m trying to look at everything globally. Looking at coaches, looking at players, looking at the why things are happening.

“And it’s not as simple as right there. That guy right there is screwing up everything,” he said while pointing his finger for emphasis. “...Everyone has got their hand in the cookie jar, we’re all taking turns."