FOX Sports’ Colin Cowherd has suggested that the New York Jets make another blockbuster trade involving a quarterback.
Ahead of the 2023 NFL Draft, the Jets acquired four-time league MVP and future Hall of Famer Aaron Rodgers in a trade with the Green Bay Packers. That automatically meant demoting Zach Wilson, the No. 2 pick of the 2021 NFL Draft, to backup duty.
On the latest edition of “The Herd with Colin Cowherd” (h/t Manuel Gómez of NJ.com), the veteran sports media personality suggested that the Jets “salvage” Wilson by trading him for a late-round pick:
“What you do is, show them off now. I thought Zach Wilson did himself well. Everybody in the league knows he’s playing with backups all around him. (He) looked at ease, easy throws, comfortable, smiling – that’s what you want it to look like…
“He’s got the best arm on the market. He played in New York. He was good in college. You can talk yourself into Zach Wilson and a fifth-round pick if you’ve got a coach on the hot seat, a GM on the hot seat, you start 4-3 or 3-4 and somebody goes down.”
Wilson was a highly-touted quarterback prospect following a superb final year of college at BYU. In 13 games as a rookie, Wilson went 3-10 with a 55.6 completion percentage for nine touchdowns and 11 interceptions.
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Wilson was limited to eight games as a sophomore in 2022. When on the field, he showed few signs of improvement by completing just 54.5 percent of pass attempts for 1,688 yards, six touchdowns and seven interceptions.
There aren’t any indicators at this time, however, that the Jets are keen on trading Wilson. Rodgers will presumably play at least two more years with the Jets, and Wilson would be eligible for free agency in 2025 if the club decided against picking up the fifth-year option on his rookie deal.
Of course, there’s always the chance that a team in desperate of a QB could look to trade for Wilson during the 2023 season. We’ll just have to see how things play out in what should be a compelling year in Jets land.
