In five games with Zach Wilson as his starting quarterback, New York Jets rising wide receiver Elijah Moore had only six catches for 81 yards. He was used so sporadically, the 2021 second-round pick demanded a trade with two-plus years remaining on his rookie contract.
The Jets didn’t act on that request. What head coach Robert Saleh did instead was bench Wilson after he failed to find the end zone in Week 11’s 10-3 loss to the New England Patriots. With former third-stringer Mike White running the offense, Moore was only targeted twice, but twice was enough to nearly double his downfield production under Wilson. He finished his day with two catches for 64 yards and his first touchdown of the season.
More importantly, White led an offense that put up 31 points against the Chicago Bears in three quarters before easing off the gas in the fourth. It was the first time the Jets had scored at least 30 points since October 9. New York is now 6-0 when scoring at least 20 points, showcasing what the brutality of a rebuilt defense can do when backed with even modest offense.
White was statistically great against an overmatched opponent, completing 22 of 28 passes for 315 yards and three touchdowns without a turnover on a rainy day in northern New Jersey. It’s not just that success that will likely keep Wilson on the bench at least one more week. It’s that White was the rising tide that lifted all the playmakers New York had hoped its second-year QB could push to greatness.
Let’s take a closer look.
Garrett Wilson: five catches, 95 yards and two touchdowns
Wilson is only a rookie, but he’s been vocal about the quarterback quality he’s been stuck with in his NFL debut. He told the press he prefers Joe Flacco back in the preseason. Last week, he called out his team’s anemic offense as “not OK.”
It made sense that he’d be White’s featured target in Week 12. Wilson delivered, gashing an undermanned Chicago secondary repeatedly for his second multiple-touchdown game of the season (in fact, all four of his touchdowns in the NFL have come with someone other than Wilson at quarterback):
SO NICE THEY DID IT TWICE.@MikeWhiteQB + @GarrettWilson_V TOUCHDOWN#CHIvsNYJ on FOX pic.twitter.com/6WE6TR25NF
— New York Jets (@nyjets) November 27, 2022
That second half touchdown is an illustration of how easy Wilson can make things for his quarterback. With plenty of time to throw off a play-action handoff, White just has to thread the needle downfield by lifting the ball over a dropping linebacker. He does, and Wilson takes advantage of an injured Eddie Jackson to turn a 17-yard completion into a 54-yard touchdown.
White threw for 315 yards Sunday. Roughly half that yardage came after the catch. This is the system Saleh and general manager Joe Douglas installed to lift Wilson’s passing game, similar to what the San Francisco 49ers have done for Jimmy Garoppolo. On Sunday, White showed how easy it can be to take advantage of, thanks in large part to Garrett Wilson and …
Elijah Moore: two catches, 64 yards and a touchdown
Moore had every right to be frustrated with his usage alongside Wilson in 2022. Here’s what he did with his first target of the new Mike White era:
imagine *not* targeting Elijah Moore pic.twitter.com/EOTCGvNHZ7
— Christian D'Andrea (@TrainIsland) November 27, 2022
And here’s the second:
DROP AN 🎱 IN THE CHAT
TOUCHDOWN @e_moore03!!#CHIvsNYJ on FOX pic.twitter.com/BXgx6njTnZ
— New York Jets (@nyjets) November 27, 2022
White wasn’t especially prolific with his downfield throws. He just make the right reads and found the guys who were open — the same guys who were open with Wilson behind center, for the most part. He only threw four passes that went further than 10 yards downfield. He completed all four for 147 yards, two touchdowns and a perfect 158.3 passer rating.
New York’s wideouts weren’t the only ones to profit from competency behind center (and a game against a bottom-six passing defense). The Jets also got a major contribution from an unexpected source.
Zonovan Knight: 103 total yards
Knight didn’t directly benefit from New York’s competent passing game as much as Wilson or Moore, though he had three catches for 35 yards. More importantly, the undrafted rookie stepped into James Robinson’s role as the team’s RB2 and shined. He contributed as a receiver from the backfield:
But, more importantly, he was the engine behind the team’s ground game thanks to a Jets-high 69 yards on 14 carries. Some of these were the result of hard-charging, grit-and-grind runs through traffic. But Knight also thrived thanks to White’s ability to stretch the field and the lightly stacked boxes that came with that.
This was monumental, especially against a top 10 run defense (by DVOA) like the Bears. The Jets had struggled mightily to generate consistent gains on the ground following Breece Hall’s Week 7 injury and were twice held under 60 total rushing yards by the Patriots in their previous three games (their 3.9 rushing yards per game since Hall’s departure was down nearly a full yard from when he was healthy). This isn’t to say that Knight is the answer — though he did look good — but that a competent passing presence can lighten the load for everyone in the New York backfield.
That didn’t translate to Michael Carter on Sunday — his 3.5 yards per carry were frustrating — and James Robinson has inspired so little confidence since being acquired in October that he was inactive against Chicago. But journeyman Ty Johnson (62 rushing yards, including a 32-yard touchdown) performed well enough to suggest being able to throw the ball downfield with some regularity and efficiency is enough to make mediocre RB stable dangerous.
The Jets are 7-4, in current position for a Wild Card bid and have allowed 17 points or fewer in six of their last seven games. This does not mean Mike White is the answer — we’ve seen his hot starts dissipate before. It could mean a steady veteran may be in 2023, whether that’s a free agent like Jimmy Garoppolo or a possible trade target like Derek Carr.
New York has the talent to make a splash in the AFC. It just needs an average quarterback to take it there.
