Zach Wilson wants to stay with Jets, show he deserves to be starting quarterback

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — Zach Wilson’s difficult second NFL season hasn’t changed how the Jets view him or how he feels about them.

Wilson said he “absolutely” wants to remain a Jet and will return next season motivated to prove he can be a starting quarterback again.

“Whether I go in there as the 1, the 2, the 3, I’m going to work to prove that I should be [starting], and that’s going to be the mindset,” he said. “I’m going to approach and attack every single day like I deserve to be.”

Wilson played in only nine games this season. He missed three with a knee injury, was a healthy scratch for four of them and was Joe Flacco’s backup in the season-ending loss in Miami on Sunday.

The Jets continue to say they are not giving up on Wilson, who was the No. 2 pick in last year’s draft, but they won’t commit to naming him the starter in Week 1 next season. Robert Saleh said Wilson is “going to have the chance to go in and compete” for the starting job.

Striking more of a mature tone and outlook than he showed earlier this season, Wilson said he’s fine with being in a quarterback competition in training camp. He said he has to earn the starting spot and sounds committed to doing whatever the organization asks of him.

“This is a special place,” Wilson said Monday. “The people here are special. This locker room is just full of special guys that I truly think are people you’d play really hard for.”

Quarterback play was a big reason the Jets struggled late in the season. They lost their final six games, didn’t score a touchdown in their last three games and finished 7-10. It’s expected that they will look to add a proven veteran quarterback who can step in and not only be someone Wilson learns from but someone capable of getting this team to the playoffs.

Wilson said if the Jets came to him and told him they believe in him but that they’re signing someone more proven, he would make it a tough competition.

“I’m going to make that dude’s life hell in practice every day,” he said. “I’m going to go out there and do my best to show the coaches that I deserve to be there. It’s not in a negative way. It’s a positive way. It’s making everybody else better. You go out there and attack every single day.”

General manager Joe Douglas wouldn’t rule out the Jets adding a veteran quarterback. He said they’re “going to explore every single avenue that we have to upgrade this team and upgrade this roster.”

Douglas also said the Jets are going to continue to develop Wilson.

“We’ve never been a team that’s given up on talent early,” he said. “We all know the talent that Zach possesses. We’re going to do what we’ve done with every player and that’s work with Zach, develop Zach, and we’re going to do everything we can to ultimately help Zach reach his full potential here.”

The Jets want Wilson to work on his fundamentals and footwork. Saleh said from now until the Jets return for OTAs, he wants him to get his “mental and physical cards right.”

Saleh expects Wilson to be a different quarterback next season.

“I do expect him to take a jump going into his third year,” he said. “I think he’s going to have a tremendous amount of growth.”

Last week, embattled offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur said he and his coaches didn’t do enough to develop Wilson and that they “failed” him. Wilson believes he failed LaFleur.

“I haven’t done enough for him,” he said. “I wish I’d played better for him, for everybody in this locker room. The cool thing is that all of us are going to approach it the same way, everybody in this locker room, Mike LaFleur, myself, we’re going to go back and be like how can we improve, how can we get better?”

By Al Iannazzone

al.iannazzone@newsday.comAl_Iannazzone

Al Iannazzone covers the Jets for Newsday after spending nearly two decades on the NBA beat with Knicks and Nets.