Jets Begin Camp without Zach Wilson, Workouts Pending for Journeymen QBs

 If things couldn't get any worse for the New York Jets, it just did. 

Zach Wilson is still not in camp. He and his representatives are haggling over off-set language in his rookie contract. Off-set language is very common in rookie contracts nowadays where money and years are pretty much set by the CBA of four-years, $35 million. 

This is not the Jets first rodeo in this department. It took them several days into camp back in 2018 to get Sam Darnold to sign on the dotted line.  Eventually he got there, but if Jets fans wants to look at that as a sign of things to come, they are probably getting queasy.  

Right now the Jets quarterbacks are Mike White and James Morgan. Neither has played a down in the NFL. White in fact was taking first team reps this morning. 

In the interim, the Jets are going to work out veteran journeymen Josh Johnson and Sean Mannion. 

Johnson has been around forever. In fact he has been on 19 different teams, 17 of those are NFL teams, including the Jets and Giants. Johnson last played in an NFL game in 2018 with San Francisco when he started three games. 

Mannion, who is a giant at 6-foot-6, was the back-up to Jared Goff for a few seasons out in LA. He spent the last two seasons in Minnesota backing up Kurt Cousins. Mannion's playing time is limited. He has only 74 career passes for 384 yards, no touchdowns and three interceptions. But, hey, that's 74 more career passes, and 384 more career years than either White or Morgan have combined. 

Here's to hoping that Wilson gets his deal done rather soon! 

Then again, just the very fact that the Jets have to even invest time in bringing in journeymen quarterbacks may speak volumes to the lack of communication that is going on right now between Wilson and the Jets. If that is the case, what a disaster. 

While one can blame Wilson and his people for crossing hairs over contractual language, this is a huge black eye for Joe Douglas who coveted Wilson out of BYU. He coveted Wilson so much so that he didn't even attempt to acquire or sign a legitimate backup quarterback when he had the chance. Now the Jets are going to pay for it.