Steve Young believes he knows where the Jets went wrong with Zach Wilson.
The Hall of Famer joined “The Michael Kay Show” on ESPN New York earlier this week and gave his opinion on the bleak situation surrounding the second-year quarterback.
“Zach doesn’t need tough love. He doesn’t need somebody to see how tough he is. He needs a big brother — a young, knowledgeable innovator, someone who he can trust and says to him, ‘You know what, despite everything that’s happened, Zach, I believe in you. You can get this done.’ Zach needs that,” Young said. “Mike [LaFleur] kind of kept him at arm’s length and kind of gave him the tough love aspect, and I don’t think that’s really useful for Zach.”
Young called the relationship between Wilson and the Jets one that “needs mending” if the two do not go their separate ways.
The Jets selected Wilson second overall in the 2021 Draft. He was benched in November after two poor performances a few weeks apart against the Patriots, and declining in a postgame press conference to take the requisite accountability.
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Young, who did the interview before the Jets fired LaFleur, the team’s second-year offensive coordinator, agreed with the idea that somebody like Kliff Kingsbury — recently fired as coach of the Arizona Cardinals — would be a good offensive steward for Wilson.
“Zach’s problems are not physical. Zach’s problems are expectations and how he deals with expectations,” Young said. “And that comes from every direction and all the things that come with playing great football.
“He’s gotta figure out a way to process all his expectations so it doesn’t affect his play. And that’s a process that’s gonna go on. And it’s not hard. It’s not long suffering. It’s growing up. It’s maturing. It’s figuring out how to deal with the stuff in front of you.”
Young is someone who has been in Wilson’s corner. He is a fellow BYU alum, and in November argued with Booger McFarland on ESPN’s airwaves that Wilson is “tough-minded” when McFarland said Wilson had come from money and faced little adversity growing up.
