We gathered around the television Thursday night to watch the Hall of Fame game because we are sadists, gambling addicts, hopelessly bored or curious about the one lingering football question one can start to have answered on a night like this: Is Zach Wilson salvageable?
It’s far too big a question to tackle in one night, of course. Wilson, especially with Aaron Rodgers ahead of him on the depth chart, will have plenty of audition time this summer. He will have better moments than we saw against the Browns. As a streaky quarterback for most of his professional career, this will be a streaky preseason.
Wilson went 3-of-5 for 65 yards. His most memorable highlight was a deep pass to Malik Taylor down the home sideline. After a few rewatches, it’s difficult to tell whether the throw was almost perfect and Taylor just had a slightly difficult time locating the ball, or if the throw was far from perfect, and Taylor’s last-minute, forward-bending contortion was evident of an overthrown pass. Personally, I thought his best completion may have been his first, which was the kind of decisive, intermediate read throw that he could miss from time to time in search of a bigger play over the past two seasons. Wilson had some critical down passes batted to the ground. He tripped on a smart no-throw and subsequent scramble, which didn’t result in a converted first down. It wasn’t hard to envision a cruel headline or two, but let’s allow ourselves to think bigger for one second. Let’s ignore the question we came here to get answered.
