Troy Aikman on Jets QB Zach Wilson: 'We don't give these guys much of a grace period anymore'

 The New York Jets have a lot riding on quarterback Zach Wilson, and if they are going to show any progress this season it is going to have to start with their second-year quarterback.

Wilson's rookie year did not go as planned as he went through some serious growing pains in a tough situation. The talent around him was bad, he was thrown to the wolves as a rookie, and the team went just 3-9 with him as a starter while he threw two more interceptions than touchdowns. 

He is expected to miss the start of the season due to an injury that limited him to just a handful of plays in the preseason, but there is still some optimism surrounding him going into the 2022 season.

One person that actually liked what they saw from Wilson a year ago was Hall of Fame quarterback and long-time announcer Troy Aikman.

Aikman talked about what he saw from Wilson this week, while also talking about something that has changed in our evaluation of quarterbacks over the years. We do not really give these guys a chance to struggle. 

Some thoughts from Aikman, via ESPN:

"I like Zach Wilson a lot," Aikman said. "From what I saw of him, I liked him a lot. I expected maybe not to see him struggle as much as he did last year, but I think he's got a chance to be a really good player.

"We don't give these guys much of a grace period anymore. I don't know that that's necessarily a good thing or a bad thing. I think expectations have changed so much because of some of the success we've seen from some of these rookie quarterbacks, not only in the last few years. It goes back to a guy like Ben Roethlisberger and what he was able to do."

He is not wrong on the grace period point. There is so much pressure on rookie quarterbacks to come in and success immediately that any sign of struggle early on immediately gets players written off. Back in the late 1990s or early 2000s it would sometimes take young quarterbacks a couple of years before they even saw the field, even if they were picked at the top of the draft. Now they are expected to not only play right away, but also be superstars.

It is not uncommon to see teams take another first-round quarterback just a year or two after previously taking one in the draft.

There are a couple of reasons for that.

The first is that the slotting scale on draft pick salaries has made it that missing on a quarterback makes it easier to cut them loose and go in another direction. In pre-slotting days quarterbacks taken at the top of the draft made enormous salaries that made teams stick with them for longer to try and get more value out of them.

The second reason is that there is a huge advantage to having a good quarterback on a rookie deal now. Because their salaries are lower than they were 15 or 20 years ago if you can hit a home run on somebody early in the draft, it creates a ton of flexibility in building a competitive roster around them.

That is why it is so important for these young quarterbacks to be good right away. So even though it is only year two for Wilson, this is still a huge year for him and the Jets. Especially with such a strong quarterback class heading to the NFL in a year.