You may be right that Zach can develop in all the ways you mention. I still think that the Jets don't give him the 5th year option on his rookie contract. And, in fairness, you also don't seen to foresee that they will. What you describe is an incentive-laden deal, which I don't think is incompatible with my view that the best he can expect after sitting behind Rogers for a year or two is a backup level base salary. I would have no problem at all in tacking on some incentives. I say this as someone who admires Zach's raw skills, but as someone who was objective enough to see that his actual performance in NFL games was generally inferior even to some of the backup quarterbacks he was matched up with.
Zach's 5th year option will cost around 23 million. The irony is, if we didn't put him back in at the end of last season he wouldn't have had the snap count to warrant a high 5th year tender. Trading him wouldn't save much cap wise, less than 10 million a year, because we already paid him a 23 million signing bonus which is prorated over his first 4 seasons. Any trade still leaves us holding millions in dead cap. Might as well keep the guy at that point.
It will be interesting to see what the Jets do with Zach. I agree that they probably won't give him the 5th year option as it presently exists, as that would probably be too much money, and I don't know if any of that would be guaranteed. I do think it will be more than a backup level salary. Many of those backup QBs are only making $2-$3 million a year, and I think that Zach would get more than that in a FA contract. I have seen how abysmally Zach played for much of the last two years. I hated it for him and for the Jets. The thing is, that I think there are a number of realistic reasons why he performed so poorly, some of which were his own failings, but others, perhaps most, were due to the situation in which the Jets put him. He could have handled things better, but the Jets should have totally handled things better. I fault JD and Saleh most of all for his poor play. I think that he was set up to fail, rather than succeed. Now the situation is radically improved, and one in which I think he can develop and thrive. He is so talented and if he can get it together can be a very, very good QB in the NFL.
He has no value and he will have no opportunity to prove anything as long as Rodgers is here. The team still believes in him whether the fanbase does or not. He’s not going anywhere
There's no doubt that Zach has outstanding physical tools. However, I think the jury is still out on whether he will ever be a successful franchise QB. He has to overcome both his mechanical issues and his apparent problems with processing information during pre-snap and post-snap reads. Maybe this was predictable given that he had limited experience with playing great teams in college. In retrospect, I think the main way he was "set up to fail" was the decision to anoint him in as a starter during his rookie year instead of allowing him to sit and learn for a year (as the Chiefs did with Mahomes).
Let's just hope we never have to see him. Practice is way different from game day. My wish he is gone
With Aaron Rodgers essentially committing to two years here, Zach's time with the Jets is all but over. His fifth year option won't get picked up, and I doubt the Jets will re-sign him after Rodgers retires. Best he can hope for is he balls out enough in preseason and a team tries to trade for him this year or next. If not, he's Rodgers backup for two years, then he's gone.
Sorry meone said it earlier....there is no superior scenario for him to learn in...if he can't... Shrug. On to the scrap heap of overdafted qbs
No, it isn't. You are playing against one of the best D. Every pro athlete will tell you play in the game the way you play in practice. Last year he was bad in practice and thus the criticism from Garret and others. He should not have been playing in the game. Your wish will have to wait for at least one more year or possibly not come thru at all, which would be best option for the team.
Nah, man. Zach can learn and he is learning. He wasn't overdrafted. He was just totally mishandled by JD, Saleh and MLF. He is on his way back.
