The Denver Broncos swung a trade with the New York Jets to acquire embattled quarterback Zach Wilson earlier this week, and Peyton Manning thinks the Jets damaged him.
“The best way to really screw a young quarterback up is to change coordinators on him every single year, and it drives me crazy,” Manning told Josh Dover and Brandon Stokley during an on-air interview with Denver Sports. “Look, I was very fortunate. I had an old-school coach named Tom Moore who was the coordinator the entire time I was there in Indianapolis.”
Wilson spent three seasons in New York and worked with two different offensive coordinators.
Manning added that he thinks the change of scenery will be good for Wilson so long as he is able to adjust to Sean Payton’s system in Denver.
“Sean Payton has a unique system, not necessarily much carryover from any of the systems that Zach has been in,” Manning said. “So I think for Zach, I think a reboot actually is good. Let’s just sort of start over, right? And let’s just let Sean Payton and his staff coach you and kind of start from ground zero, which I think might be just what Zach needs.”
Wilson, who played his collegiate football at BYU, was selected by the Jets with the second overall pick of the 2021 NFL Draft.
Throughout his tumultuous tenure in New York, Wilson went 12-21 as a starter and amassed 23 passing touchdowns and 25 interceptions.
This past season, the 24-year-old threw for 2,271 yards, eight touchdowns and seven picks while completing 60.1 percent of his passes and posting a passer rating of 77.2 in 12 games and 11 starts.
“Look, I think it’s a great chapter two for Zach,” added Manning. “He will get coached hard here by Sean Payton and their staff; (it) is important for young quarterbacks to be coached hard. He’s obviously very talented.”
Talent was certainly not the issue for Wilson coming out of college, but he had mechanical issues that he never fixed in the Big Apple. Could that have merely been a result of poor management from the Jets?
We’ll see if Wilson is able to get his career on track with the Broncos.
It seems that Peyton Manning is somewhat optimistic about Zach Wilson’s chances.
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