There was one moment Friday, the moment in which Zach Wilson let it fly down the middle of the field to where rookie receiver Elijah Moore made a diving catch, that let you imagine the possibilities.
But only one.
On the first day of the rest of Wilson’s life, there were mostly moments when you were forced to temper expectations that his Jets career will rocket into space as effortlessly and sensationally as Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos did.
If it wasn’t jet lag, and if it wasn’t Day 1 jitters, it was the sobering reality that you can’t just show up against a defense faster than any you played against at BYU and before even beginning to master a new offense, and remind anyone of Aaron Rodgers or Patrick Mahomes.
Or even remind anyone of Zach Wilson, the second player drafted, the first quarterback selected after Trevor Lawrence.
It was a humbling first day for Wilson, to say the least.
Jets fans should do themselves a favor and resist pushing that everpresent panic button.
Just remember that Eli Manning resembled Christian Hackenberg at his first minicamp. So everybody chill. Let the kid come down from cloud nine and get the hang of this franchise quarterback thing.
Better days are ahead. Wilson shouldn’t be expected to be the second coming of Joe Namath, but he definitely won’t be the second coming of Hackenberg.
“I would never say there’s pressure,” Wilson said, “I would just say it’s how can I eliminate some of the rust? … The game’s fast, you just gotta go and get used to it and catch up to it.”
The football gods, so cruel to Jets quarterbacks through the years, gave Wilson a picture-perfect blue sky and a bright sun and coaches and teammates who know where their bread is buttered and have his back.
He’s fortunate in this regard: He doesn’t have to follow a franchise icon as the Giants’ Daniel Jones did and does. He follows Sam Darnold, who could not swim his way out of Swamp Gase.
Darnold’s arm talent was so intoxicating during his rookie summer of 2018 that then-coach Todd Bowles anointed him the starter for Week 1 at Detroit.
Wilson has tantalizing arm talent and has 17 more practices and six more weeks to go before he gets to duel Darnold on his Week 1 at Carolina.
When he was asked if he had any first purchase in mind with his $22.9 million signing bonus, Wilson said: “You can’t buy a Super Bowl, so I guess I gotta work for that. … We’ll go try and work for one of those, man, it’s gonna be a process. … The fun part is not the money, it’s definitely playing football.”
His worst moment playing football, on a day when he was throttled in 7-on-7 in the red zone, was an interception by Marcus Maye.
“Great learning experience,” Wilson said. “I tried to throw it sooner than I was supposed to. There were a lot of bodies in there, I shouldn’t even have thrown the ball. It’s all a learning process.”
Even on his 40-yard bomb to Moore, his dynamic rookie receiver, Wilson fretted.
“Even that one, not the greatest ball. … I could put it out there more to the left and let him run to it,” Wilson said.
Wilson wore his familiar white headband and white leggings and a white towel tucked in the back of his shorts. He wears No. 2, but everyone knows he is No. 1 in the heart and mind of general manager Joe Douglas and head coach Robert Saleh.
“Defense always comes out of the gates pretty quick and then the offense slowly catches up and then it becomes a slugfest back and forth,” Saleh said. “This has been traditional for the history of time.”
The kid’s first day of training camp is hardly the appropriate time to remind the green-and-white faithful that failing to find The Next Namath has become a franchise tradition.
At a generous 6-foot-2, Wilson does not cut an imposing figure, but if he didn’t check the baller box, the football IQ box, the accuracy box, the fearlessness box, the mental toughness box, the resilience box, the leadership box, the gym-rat and film-junkie box, the moxie box, the team-first box, the Jets would have drafted Trey Lance or Justin Fields or Mac Jones.
“He’s got tremendous confidence, he walks into the huddle, he’s not stuttering, he’s giving the play call, when he gets to the line of scrimmage, he gets people lined up,” Saleh said, “so he’s got that leadership and presence to him and it’s only gonna get better.”
Of course it will. The unanswered question will be: How much better?
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