Zach Wilson #2 of the Jets looks on during the third...

Zach Wilson #2 of the Jets looks on during the third quarter against the Jacksonville Jaguars at MetLife Stadium on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2022. Credit: Jim McIsaac

FLORHAM PARK, N.J — Jets offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur remains confident in Zach Wilson’s ability to be a starting quarterback and believes the coaches can help him become one.

“Keep working,” LaFleur said. “He’s a New York Jet and that’s not changing. That’s the way my mindset is, [quarterbacks coach] Rob Calabrese, anybody else associated with it. He’s got to come to work and he’s got to be prepared to not just get better but prepared to play. Nothing changes with Zach in terms of the preparation that we’re going to put in for him and the work we’re going to put in for him.”

Mike White will be the Jets’ starter for the remainder of the season. Wilson will be inactive. The Jets are calling it another “reset,” one that will last into next training camp. But LaFleur doesn’t doubt Wilson will grow.

“He’s a talented football player. He’s a talented thrower,” he said. “There’s things physically in the lower half that we got to get corrected . . .  It’s going to be all-encompassing. It’s going to be the work he puts in today, but going through that whole offseason, just resetting that lower half, getting those feet in the ground, getting balance and seeing where he can improve.”

Geno and the Jets

Seattle quarterback Geno Smith, a Jets second-round pick in 2013, downplayed facing his old team on Sunday.

“I got a lot of love for the Jets, the organization and all the people that are still there that were there when I got drafted,” Smith said. “For me and this team, it’s business as usual.”

Like the Jets, Seattle needs to win out and get help to reach the postseason.

Smith made his first Pro Bowl this season. He’s thrown 27 touchdown passes, one fewer than he did in four seasons with the Jets. A starter the first two, he suffered a broken jaw before the start of his third season when teammate IK Enemkpali punched him. Ryan Fitzpatrick replaced Smith as the starter.

Smith called it “a freak accident” and said it was “an amazing time for me to grow and become more of a selfless individual.”

Thanks, brother

LaFleur, still stinging from last week’s loss and poor offensive showing against Jacksonville, was happy when his brother Matt’s team, the Packers, beat Miami on Christmas Day. It kept the Jets very much alive in the playoff race.

“That was a good gift for all of us,” LaFleur said. “It was cool. Being able to sit back and watch that with my wife, and [I’m] pretty stoic throughout, when they got the ‘W,’ it was probably the first smile I had all weekend.”

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