Joe Flacco Will Start for New York Jets in Week 1
Joe Flacco will be the New York Jets starting quarterback on Sunday when the Jets open the 2022 regular season at MetLife Stadium against Flacco’s former team, the Baltimore Ravens.
The announcement came down from Head Coach Robert Saleh on Wednesday, who hinted earlier in the week that there would be a chance that Zach Wilson could end up starting. As it turns out Wilson is going to remain on the bench until at least Week 4. A slightly surprising revelation, considering Wilson was expected to miss at most one or two games. Now he is out until at least October.
A lot of folks might be wondering how Wilson went from "possible" starter in Wk 1 to sidelined at least 3 games. Fair question. #Jets knew all along Wilson wouldn't play this week; Monday was all gamesmanship. How they got from that to Wk 4 "at the earliest" is curious.
— Rich Cimini (@RichCimini) September 7, 2022
According to Saleh, Wilson isn’t 100 percent ready, and playing him Sunday against the heavy blitzes of the Ravens is “not worth the risk.”
“There’s the knee element. There’s the mind element. There’s the practice element. There are a whole lot of things other than the knee,” Saleh said.
Wilson, the second overall pick in the 2021 draft, missed almost the entire preseason after suffering a bone bruise and meniscus tear in the Jets’ preseason opener at Philadelphia. He was expected to miss two-to-four weeks at the time. If he is out until the Jets’ trip to Pittsburgh in Week 4, it would be almost two full months since he last played.
Flacco last started in 2019 with the Denver Broncos, a year after he lost his starting job with the Ravens in 2018, who opted to go with Lamar Jackson. It will be a fascinating matchup to see Flacco go up against the team that drafted him, and he won a Super Bowl with back in 2012.
Coach Saleh says that likely the earliest QB Zach Wilson will be available is Week 4 at Pittsburgh. pic.twitter.com/3buMD5xqTb
— New York Jets (@nyjets) September 7, 2022
