The New York Jets will be hoping to see more athleticism from Zach Wilson this season and they can call on one play from his college days as inspiration.

To say that Zach Wilson’s first year in the NFL for the New York Jets would be something of an understatement for the 22-year-old quarterback out of Brigham Young University.

With 3,692 passing yards and 33 touchdowns to just 3 interceptions in his final year with the Cougars, it seemed like he had all the makings to be a success in the NFL, but his first year was certainly a baptism of fire to say the very least.

He threw for just 2,334 passing yards despite having an extra game to play, whilst he was only able to deliver 9 touchdown passes, which were offset by 11 interceptions. 

Hopefully just growing pains

You would have to hope that these numbers aren’t a true reflection of what he can brign to the league, because he could well end up being the latest in a long line of Jets quarterbacks that failed to bring anything to the franchise.

Not since the 2015 season with Ryan Fitzpatrick under centre have the Jets had a winning season, and they haven’t had back-to-back winning seasons since 2009 and 2010 when Mark Sanchez was there. Plenty of men have tried to steady the ship, with Geno Smith, Bryce Petty, Josh McCown, Sam Darnold and Joe Flacco among the names who have started for them, but to no real avail. 

But there’s something that the Jets clearly think Wilson can offer, his numbers from college and how highly they drafted him show as much, but what he brings to the field might not necessarily be measured totally in numbers.

Showing some toughness under pressure

Creativity, strength and agility are all things that don’t necessarily translate into a box score, Wilson showed all three of those in this clip from his college days, as he hurdles one player and whislt in mid-air manages to stiff-arm a second player before heading out of bounds for a first down:

If his arm doesn’t get better this season, then they might need a few more runs like these in order to try and turn things around at MetLife Stadium.

This is going to be his second season in the NFL, so he does have some time to turn things around, but you would imagine that progress needs to come quickly, or thoughts of replacing him might happen sooner rather than later.