New York Jets quarterback Zach Wilson will miss at least the first three games of the season with a knee injury, coach Robert Saleh confirmed Wednesday.
His earliest return would be the Week 4 game at Pittsburgh on Oct. 2.
Veteran Joe Flacco will pilot the Jets in his absence, including Sunday’s season opener against his former team as the Baltimore Ravens visit East Rutherford, N.J.
“Heck yeah, man, Joe Cool,” Saleh said.
There had been a glimmer of hope after Wilson went through a workout on Monday morning to test his surgically-repaired right knee.
However, Saleh said Wednesday’s decision was based on “everything we gathered over the last couple of days.”
“We are going to make sure that both mind and body are 110 percent, make sure that we do right by him,” Saleh said. “And we feel like, from talking to the doctors and everyone, it’s going to be that Pittsburgh week.”
Saleh said Wilson still “looks great” and the team will follow the rehab plan closely.
Flacco said he expected to be the starter for Week 1 for the past three weeks.
Wilson said Wednesday he doesn’t plan to change the way he plays in the name of self preservation.
“If the guy hit me and I got injured, it’s one thing,” Wilson said of the non-contact injury. “If I can’t run and cut without getting hurt, then what am I doing? I have to take care of myself and put myself in a better situation there.”
Wilson, 23, had arthroscopic surgery on Aug. 16 after sustaining a meniscus tear and a bone bruise on a non-contact injury in the Aug. 12 preseason opener against the Philadelphia Eagles.
Wilson, the No. 2 pick in the 2021 draft, missed time last season with a torn PCL in the same knee. He was 3-10 as a starter with nine touchdowns and 11 interceptions.
Flacco, 37, won 96 regular-season games and a Super Bowl championship over 11 seasons with the Ravens (2008-18). He passed for 338 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions in two games last season with the Jets, but he has not won a start since 2019 with the Denver Broncos.
–Field Level Media
