Ryan Leaf’s advice to Jets’ Zach Wilson: ‘No more talking’

Ryan Leaf has some recommendation for Zach Wilson: Shut up and ball.

Like Wilson, Leaf was as soon as the second general decide within the NFL Draft. Their circumstances of failure had been clearly completely different — Leaf went via some well-documented substance struggles after his taking part in profession and wound up incarcerated for burglary — however the former quarterback spoke to The Submit on behalf of PointsBet about what recommendation he would give Wilson to salvage his profession.

“Proper now it’s gonna be all about motion — no extra speaking about something,” Leaf mentioned. “If anybody desires to speak to him, simply say, ‘Once I’ve figured it out and I’m an honest quarterback, then I’ll speak.’ There’s nothing he can say that’s going to vary the minds of anyone proper now — he’s acquired to exit and carry out.

“Sadly, if you’re a top-three draft decide, you won’t get that chance once more as a result of expectations have been set so excessive. Hopefully he leads to a spot the place he has the prospect to be a starter once more, however this simply weighs like an anchor. It simply does. Sadly, you don’t get many second possibilities to begin if you’re a top-three drafted quarterback. You would possibly get to again up someplace else.”

Wilson was drafted second general by the Jets in 2021. He misplaced his beginning job this previous season as a result of a mixture of poor play and perceived management points. The ultimate blow got here when he said he did not feel he let the defense down after a brutal, turnover-filled loss to the Patriots.

Leaf and Wilson were tied together in headlines in November when Leaf tweeted, “I’ve had a greater life than Jets followers the final decade and I spent 3 of these years in jail, respectfully after all.”

Requested what sort of state of affairs can be preferrred for Wilson, Leaf mentioned, “I’d like to see him sort of do what Mitchell Trubisky did and go to a spot the place you’ve acquired a longtime star in Josh Allen, and also you’re a backup, and also you sort of learn to do it, and then you definitely’ve acquired a chance to go someplace else and be a starter once more, like Mitchell did in Pittsburgh.”

One preferrred state of affairs that got here to thoughts for Leaf for Wilson is Kansas Metropolis.

“To study from arguably the very best on the market taking part in proper now in Patrick Mahomes, and a coach in Andy Reid, and undergo that course of,” Leaf mentioned.

Leaf mentioned he has developed a reasonably good relationship with Jets quarterback Mike White, however has not had any communication with Wilson.

“Zach was the second general decide, struggled, and is getting hit with lots of the B-U-S-T phrase. It could be an ideal alternative for somebody like that to succeed in out,” Leaf mentioned. “However he hasn’t. I get it. As a result of I had alternatives like that too. Terry Bradshaw and John Elway and stuff reached out to me, and I simply sort of informed them to f–okay off. So I get it. I perceive it. However I would like him to be as profitable as he will be.”

Leaf mentioned that he may have had a chance to catch on as a backup with the Bucs, who had been coached by Tony Dungy on the time, however his satisfaction and ego acquired in the best way of taking a pay lower as a backup.

“He’s gotta take away his satisfaction from his thought course of,” Leaf mentioned of Wilson. “He’s gotta assume, ‘Do I need a 15-year profession within the NFL?’ If that’s the case, probably it’s gonna be as a backup.”

Except for being an envoy for PointsBet, the 46-year-old Leaf is asking video games for Westwood One and ESPN and is an analyst for SiriusXM NFL Radio. He additionally speaks about psychological sickness and substance abuse across the nation and has partnered with the Menninger Clinic, a psychiatric hospital in Houston.

PointsBet, in the meantime, has odds posted for the Jets’ Week 1 starter. Aaron Rodgers is the Favourite at 2-to-1, with Jimmy Garoppolo at 2.5-to-1, Lamar Jackson and Derek Carr at 4-to-1, Mike White at 10-1 and Wilson at 16-to-1. Daniel Jones and Geno Smith are each listed at 20-to-1, whereas longshots Bryce Younger, CJ Stroud and Will Levis all have 30-to-1 odds.