Zach Wilson Accepts Blame for Jets' Loss to Mahomes, Chiefs Despite HC Saleh Praise

Zach Wilson may have put together the best performance of his season in Sunday's loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, but the New York Jets quarterback put the blame on his own shoulders for a fourth-quarter fumble.

"It's on me," Wilson said. "Critical situation, I can't have a play like that. I cannot drop the ball. This team is sacrificing a lot. Guys were making plays, defense was making plays, o-line was protecting, receivers were making plays. To be driving right there, to drop a snap—I cannot do that. I lost us that game and I cannot do that. I was making it clear to those guys that I need to be better. I need to be better on the little things, the details. Can't happen."

Nevertheless, head coach Robert Saleh came away encouraged by third-year quarterback Zach Wilson's performance.

"I thought he was really good," Saleh told reporters after the game. "Gave us a chance to win the game, brought us back. If he plays like that, we're gonna win a lot of football games."

Wilson went 28-of-39 for 245 yards and two touchdowns, which was by far his best performance of the 2023 season and one of the best of his career. He led the Jets to a comeback from 17 points down and had them in position to potentially go ahead in the fourth quarter, but his lone big mistake of the night—a dropped snap—was ultimately the difference.

The Chiefs got the ball back with 7:24 remaining and never relinquished possession, using the ground game and a defensive holding call on Sauce Gardner to pull off the win.

"I haven't had a chance to talk to him yet, but I'm sure he's beating himself up over a play or two here or there, but he shouldn't," Saleh said. "There's nothing that he should be ashamed of."

Wilson, who entered the weekend graded as the NFL's worst quarterback in nearly every category, will have a chance to build on his performance next week against a shaky Denver Broncos defense.

Embattled Chicago Bears starting quarterback Justin Fields put together the best passing game of his career Sunday against Denver, a week after the Broncos allowed the Miami Dolphins to put up 70 points.

If the Broncos' recent performance is any indication, Wilson should have no trouble building on his encouraging Week 4 and potentially start to turn a corner. With that said, we had 25 games of tape showing Wilson is not a quality NFL quarterback coming into this weekend. One decent game isn't going to suddenly turn around opinions.