ORCHARD PARK — As Zach Wilson’s rookie year winds down, he and the Jets can get some encouragement by looking across the field Sunday at Bills quarterback Josh Allen.
Allen is now in his fourth year and has the Bills heading to the playoffs for a third straight season. But after his rookie campaign in 2018, there were questions about Allen. Wilson has heard some of those same questions during his rookie season, which will wrap up Sunday against Allen and the Bills.
“It’s been like that everywhere I’ve been my entire life,” Wilson said. “When I first got to college, I wasn’t that great, and I was just trying to survive and get through it. It’s a really similar experience now, and everything is just different around you, and you just know if you keep working at it and you just keep building that relationship with the guys around you and you guys just keep working hard, eventually things just kind of take care of themselves.”
The two players have some similar statistics from their rookie seasons from completion percentage (56.7 for Wilson, 52.8 for Allen), to passing yards (2,247 for Wilson, 2,074 for Allen), to passing touchdowns (10 for Allen, eight for Wilson), to interceptions (12 for Allen, 11 for Wilson). Allen was a more effective runner, rushing for eight touchdowns and 631 yards to Wilson’s 161 yards and four scores.
The Jets (4-12) enter the game with little left to play for but pride. The Bills (10-6) will win the AFC East with a victory over the Jets at Highmark Stadium. The Jets hope that in a few years they can be where the Bills are now. They can study what Buffalo did to build a successful team around Allen and help him succeed.
“Credit to Buffalo, they’ve kind of found his style,” Jets head coach Robert Saleh said. “He kind of plays like Ben Roethlisberger did back in his younger days. He’s not exactly an on-schedule quarterback, but just this big, massive body that can hang in there, take shots, work off schedule and all that stuff. They’ve really done a nice job kind of finding what he does well and letting him go do it. They’ve also surrounded him with some significant talent.”
Wilson played his best game of the season during the loss last week to the Buccaneers. He has not been intercepted in his past four games and has shown improvement over the final month of the season.
“I’m really excited to see where he can take it,” Saleh said, “because he’s getting rid of the ball faster, his feet are cleaner, his eyes are down the field, his accuracy has been really good. He’s not even close to where he’s going to be.”
