Zach Wilson and the importance of scheme in player performance

in 2021, the New York Jets brought in quarterback Zach Wilson and offensive coordinator Mike LeFleur to helm their offense. Among his responsibilities, LeFleur was tasked with developing Wilson.

However, that never came to pass, and after two years of struggles Wilson has been demoted to a backup role while LeFleur is no longer employed by the New York Jets. In LeFleur’s place is new offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett, who will now attempt to turn Wilson from a budding “bust” into a plus starter. Part of that development plan seems to involve a large change in the speed at which Wilson delivers the football.

Based on the current preseason data, Zach has reduced his time-to-throw by approximately 25%. While this alone is unlikely to save Wilson’s career, we should expect such a change to at least cut down on his pressure and sack rate, perhaps lessening the number of costly sacks that he takes if he ever does make it back onto the field.

In general, I think this statistic is less interesting from a “Zach Wilson” perspective then it is from a “development” perspective. Two different coaches were given the same player and have opted to have him play in two wildly different styles. While this example pertains to Wilson, such decisions are likely being made for every young player in the league with some coaches choosing to have a player do “X” while other coaches would have that same player do “Y” and it’s possible those decisions are key points that determine a player’s eventual worth. As fans, we can only hope that the coaches we have opt to put players in the best positions to succeed and can draw out the best performances from the guys we have.