Mike White made his fourth career start on Sunday and in the process, may have prevented the New York Jets’ season from going off course. Some might say second-year head coach Robert Saleh had a tough decision to make this week after second-year pro and former No. 2 overall pick Zach Wilson‘s immaturity and ineffectiveness led to some locker-room turmoil following the team’s Week 11 loss.
With the Jets’ offense sputtering against a very good New England defense, the 23-year-old QB refused to look within and seemed to brush off any thoughts of him letting his team down after completing just 40.9% of his passes for 77 scoreless yards in the loss.
Saleh could have done what many other coaches do and stuck by the player who was selected so highly in April of 2021, hoping he eventually figured it out. Instead, the coach decided to make a decision that seemed to be in the best interest of his team and in turn, help him keep the locker room by his side.
We learned earlier this week that 27-year-old backup QB Mike White would make the fourth start of his NFL career, coming against the Chicago Bears, who also were set to start a backup.
The NFL community knew this would suddenly be a winnable matchup for the 6-4 Jets, taking on a 3-8 Bears team without their best offensive playmaker, but few anticipated White to step in under center and help the Jets sail to victory, seemingly with ease.
Instead, White was in his bag against Chicago, completing 22-of-28 passes for 315 yards and three touchdowns. He completed passes to 10 different receivers, showing Wilson how to get all of his teammates involved, while also probably getting on their good side.
While White had some YAC help from Garrett Wilson, he still had three completions over 20 yards, showing off some of the big play ability we have rarely seen from Wilson under center. Wilson averaged 2.5 plays over 20 yards in his seven starts in 2022.
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New York Jets benching Zach Wilson for Mike White could be short-lived
But this only goes to show just how right Saleh was by having his finger on the pulse of his locker room, doing what he realized needed to be done by benching Wilson.
As the team noted, it’s not a ‘death knell’ for the once highly-touted QB, but they won’t be ready to put Wilson back in the starting lineup until he “regains his confidence“, according to NFL insider Jay Glazer.
By all appearances, if White can continue to perform as he did against Chicago, going back to Wilson won’t be easy, and it won’t happen any time soon. Yet, with the Jets firmly in the playoff picture in an extremely competitive AFC East, it wouldn’t shock anyone to see Wilson back under center at the first sign of struggle from White.
With matchups against other contenders, such as Minnesota and Buffalo coming up next, Wilson could find himself back on the field sooner than later. Unless we’re all just underestimating White’s natural ability.
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