Jets wide receiver Garrett Wilson content to fly under radar, for now
Jets wide receiver Garrett Wilson during a joint practice with the Giants on Aug. 13 in East Rutherford, N.J. Credit: Ed Murray
FLORHAM PARK, NJ – The Jets have said and done just about everything they could this summer to signal that Garrett Wilson will be a huge part of their success this season. Whether it was adding his college quarterback, signing him to his four-year, $130 million extension, shuffling him around the offensive schemes so he can work from the slot as well as the outside, or just overtly saying how much they intend to deploy him, all indications are that a focus of this new coaching staff and front office is making this the year Wilson’s production finally meets his promise.
The plan seems to be to elevate Wilson into the uppermost echelon of NFL receivers.
To which Wilson shrugs and says: Yeah, we’ll see about all that.
Players won’t often pump the brakes on their own hype trains, but Wilson has been here with the Jets long enough to understand that things promised in the offseason and preseason — whether it be big-picture hopes of the organization or the smaller detailed intentions of the coaching staff — don’t always mean that’ll stick around when the regular season kicks off.
Forgive his hesitancy. It comes not from a lack of confidence, but the harsh lessons of the past.
“I want to see how this plays out come a couple weeks from now,” the wide receiver said on Tuesday. “We’ve done a good job of getting a lot of different looks and moving around a lot whenever we were in camp and throughout OTAs. But I wouldn’t say I hadn’t felt that way previously. So now it’s just how it translates to gameday.”
While the practices have been Wilson showcases, including Tuesday’s where he caught a 40-yarder down the left sideline from Justin Fields then extended for a 9-yard slant for a touchdown — the two Jets preseason games so far have been the opposite. Wilson has yet to catch a pass from Fields in their time on the field together against the Packers and Giants. That chemistry they are supposed to have has been inert.
And then there are the comments that run contrary to the passing bravado around Wilson, phrases such as “taking what they give us,” and a desire to be a physical running team.
“Who says it’s a passing league?” head coach Aaron Glenn said on Tuesday.
Not quite the sentiment a receiver always likes hearing.
“We're fine with taking 8-yard completions every play, if I'm being honest with you,” Fields said. “Of course you want explosives, but we're not going to force the ball downfield. . . . It might not be as exciting on the offensive side of the ball for the fans, but it's efficient ball.”
Not exciting for a certain receiver, either.
Wilson, though, seems at peace with whatever happens. Perhaps it is because he has gotten his big second contract and he doesn’t need numbers to negotiate with. Or maybe at 25 his perspectives are adjusting to his reality as a Jet.
“If they take (the passing game) away we have options,” he said of the Jets’ running attack. “That’s the beautiful thing. We have a lot of things we can do. I train like I am going to be the focal point of an offense but if that’s not the plan this week that’s not the plan. That’s part of my growth as a player. Being ready for that, but also knowing that if they take it away, they are going to take it away.”
So Wilson keeps working on things he can control, like his game and his headspace. He said he feels more “ownership” in the Jets’ future now that he has the extension and knows other players are looking to him as an example of what the team wants.
“The stuff I’ve been doing, they deem it to work,” he said. “Let’s bring some people with me. That’s the mindset.”
He’s also aware that he now has an opportunity to leave a lasting legacy with the Jets beyond his rookie contract.
“I want it to be as great as it can be,” he said of that impact. “There are certain ways to act if you really mean that.”
None of that will matter if he isn’t catching a lot of passes for a lot of yards and a lot of touchdowns, though. That has to be as much a part of the story as his stellar citizenship and pristine practice habits.
So far in his career he’s been very good at that. Despite often spotty quarterback play he’s managed to be a consistent producer averaging 93 catches and 1,083 yards with 14 total touchdowns in his first three seasons. Last year, he had career highs of 101 catches and 1,104 yards.
There is, though, a tantalizingly untapped next tier to his game. It has remained just beyond his reach for three seasons. Very good has the chance to be great.
Is this the year he grabs that adjective? Perhaps. It would be exciting for everyone if it is.
He’s smart enough to not say it will be.
“I don’t want to be this guy who gets this rep of every year it’s this and that out of him,” Wilson said of voicing expectations. “Maybe it’s not always me doing the talking, maybe it’s the fantasy people or that. But (I’m) just not buying into it and knowing there is work to be done because that stuff doesn’t mean anything. . . . For me, it’s been staying off the radar and let’s go do it when it matters.”
Yes, indeed, Jets. Let’s.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
