It would probably be best to handle this player in a certain way this year if you really want to help him take the next step.
If you really want to fix Zach Wilson’s footwork and mechanics, he should probably not be the #2 QB entering the season, one snap away from getting in a game.
If they want to do this right, he needs to be red-shirted this season, or at least for part of it, to give him ample time to fix what is broken. It takes a lot of time to reverse entrenched muscle memory issues. Wilson has been throwing a certain way for a long time, and getting away with it on lower levels of competition, but that stuff isn’t going to fly on the NFL level.
Just go back to the game in New England and you see these mechanical issues on full display, like when Wilson sailed a simple bubble screen over the head of Braxton Berrios.
“Set your feet and stop throwing sidearm – talk about streetball. Settle this guy down!” said New England radio analyst Scott Zolak after the play.
Zolak, a former NFL QB, said throughout this game that Wilson throws off his back foot too often.
There is a lot of heavy lifting involved in fixing this stuff. It doesn’t happen overnight.
So they should probably make Wilson the #3 entering the season, with the intention of truly trying to fix his mechanics and footwork.
If the starting QB has to miss any time early in the year, have somebody else ready to play. Maybe that is Tim Boyle, a former Packer and Lion they signed on Thursday.
Do what is right for the kid. Give him ample time to fix his “fundies,” as they say in the baseball world.
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