The home fans recited Mike White’s name during the New York Jets’ season-opening loss to the Baltimore Ravens, however, they’re not making a quarterback change this week.
Joe Flacco, who began for the harmed Zach Wilson, will stay in the lineup Sunday against the Cleveland Browns. Coach Robert Saleh said Wednesday he never genuinely viewed as a change despite the fact that he made some uncertainty on Monday.
“There was a comedy of errors that just led to what looked like a bad performance by him,” Saleh said of Flacco, alluding four dropped passes and two fumbles. “Now, it wasn’t his best performance, but I don’t think it was as bad as people think.”
On Monday, Saleh demonstrated that Flacco would “likely” begin the game, however he added that all positions were under review. White is a fan most loved in light of his 405-yard passing performance last season in a steamed of the Cincinnati Bengals, yet he worked solely with the third-team offense before Wilson’s injury in the preseason.
Presently the inquiry is, will Flacco have a short leash on the off chance that the offense falters against the Tans (1-0)?
“No, Joe’s our quarterback,” Saleh said. “We’re focusing on Cleveland, just trying to get through this one and we’ll see what happens.”
The Jets will be without Wilson for something like two additional games. He went through arthroscopic knee surgery Aug. 16 and was controlled out of the first three games. He got back to practice Wednesday, though on an extremely restricted premise. In uniform for the first time since the injury, he did dropbacks and threw to receivers on air during the open portion of practice.
The 37-year-old Flacco battled in the 24-9 misfortune to the Ravens, as the Jets didn’t score a touchdown until the last minute of the game. His absence of versatility was glaring – – three sacks, 11 quarterback hits and pressured 19 times, as indicated by Next Gen Stats.
Flacco finished 37 of 59 passes for 307 yards, with one touchdown and one interception. In decency, the run-pass balance was off the line, as the Jets called 62 pass works out of 79 total plays. He likewise played behind a reshuffled offensive line, with George Fant getting back to left tackle and rookie Max Mitchell beginning at right tackle. Those changes were made last week because of a shoulder injury to left tackle Duane Brown, who was put on injured reserve.
“Well, listen, my job as a quarterback is to put the ball in the end zone and score points and put our team in position to win,” Flacco said. “Any time that doesn’t happen, it starts and ends with the quarterback position — and that’s myself. It was obviously a frustrating day, not being able to do that as well as I wanted to.”
Saleh said Flacco, a former Super Bowl MVP, performed well when the pocket was clean, adding that he expected to find his check-down receivers speedier once the pocket collapsed.
Flacco is 0-6 as a starter for the Jets, covering the 2020, 2021 and 2022 seasons. He hasn’t won a beginning since 2019, when he played for the Denver Broncos.
White hasn’t played since a four-interception performance last Nov. 14 against the Buffalo Bills. In three beginnings, he had four touchdown passes and six interceptions. After the victory misfortune to the Bills, he was sidelined for Flacco. Wilson was out with a knee injury at the time.
