[Hammock Parties]

Ranking NFL quarterbacks who could get benched: Six candidates

1. Zach Wilson, New York Jets

Where do we begin? It was unfair to judge Wilson by what we saw against the Bills in Week 1, when he was forced into the lineup because of Aaron Rodgers' torn left Achilles tendon. Facing one of the league's best defenses with no first-team reps on about 30 seconds' notice, he always was going to look bad.

Since then, things haven't gotten much better. Any suggestion that Wilson would have been chastened by his quick fall from grace or picked up much from Rodgers during their summer together in New York hasn't been borne out by what we've seen. Sadly, if anything, he looks worse than he did over the previous two seasons.

Wilson's 26.7 Total QBR is comfortably the worst of his career and 10 points below where he eventually landed in 2022. It's actually worse (24.7) if you remove the emergency snaps against Buffalo from the equation. His completion rate (52.4%) and yards per attempt (5.6) are at career lows.

In trying to keep the offense afloat and avoid turnovers with Wilson, it appears offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett's plan has been to keep things simple and try to eliminate anything that might be challenging. Wilson is averaging 6.6 air yards per throw, which is down about 1.5 yards from last season. One-third of his passes are at or behind the line of scrimmage -- the second-highest rate in football -- and 7.1% of his passes are deep (20-plus yards downfield), which ranks 27th.

You can understand the logic, but it's neutering any hope the Jets have of scoring on offense. Wilson needs to piece together a handful of first downs for this team to score, and that's just not realistic.

He is still being pressured at the league's second-highest rate despite the short passes, and when there's a man on him, disaster strikes. He is 6-of-30 for 54 yards with eight sacks and an interception when pressured this season; his 3.7 QBR in those situations ranks 31st.

Every passer is relatively bad under pressure, but the Jets can't count on landing on a single drive in which he goes unpressured for 10 or 12 plays and it leads to a scoring opportunity.