Is Trevor Lawrence clearly the best quarterback and the first overall pick?
QB Coach 1: He’s the no-brainer top guy. I was trying to be critical and not just go with the flow, but the more you study him and the other guys, he’s the best by a wide margin. What does he not do well? I had (Joe) Burrow as a better prospect. His film was insane. (LSU) had empty protection and was putting a lot on Joe. Trevor’s offense at Clemson is smart and safe. He’s 6 feet 6 and he’ll be 225-230 pounds. I’m not worried about his weight now because he has a torn labrum (in his left, non-throwing shoulder), and he can’t keep weight on because of that. He’s really athletic — you’re not running away from guys at Ohio State if you’re not fast. He can anticipate and (he) throws with touch. He’s mature, and I was really impressed with his character.
QB Coach 1: The good with Zach Wilson is really good, but the bad can be really, really bad. And when he goes to a bad team like the Jets and he’s trying to win games, those are big concerns. To me he’s kinda like Patrick Mahomes coming out of college. People think now about Mahomes as the Super Bowl-winning quarterback and how great he is now, but coming out of Texas Tech, he was not this surefire guy. He was uber-talented arm-wise, and he does a lot of stuff that is really sexy now, but he threw a lot of bad picks, and his decision-making, I thought, was really inconsistent. With Wilson, you see a lot of, ‘Why would you even try that?’ When he gets to the NFL he’s got to retool his game, and you’re gonna have to let him learn what he can throw and can’t throw, but unlike Mahomes, Zach won’t have Andy Reid to coach him and a year behind Alex Smith to learn from.
I could see Zach being a Pro Bowl QB quickly like (Justin) Herbert or I could see him being like Drew Lock. If I had to bet money, I’d bet it doesn’t work out for him with the Jets. Zach playing right away in that market with his play style — woof — that’d make me really nervous. And unlike Trey (Lance) and Justin (Fields), at least they’re 6-4, 230 and can run. So if he starts ****ting the bed, we can get out of the game running the ball like Josh Allen did as a rookie in Buffalo.
I expected him to be Drew Lock-ish (in his interview); I did not get that vibe. He was great; smart. He knows we’re not gonna take him and he could’ve been a total **** and that it probably wouldn’t have hurt him, but he wasn’t. He knew his offense; we put on bad clips and he took ownership, all of that.