Zach Wilson is on his third team in three years, but he’s making the most of his new opportunity with the Miami Dolphins.
After being traded by the New York Jets last year, Wilson has tried to be himself more and focus on his love of football, according to Pro Football Talk.
“That’s what I’ve tried to do since I went through the entire New York experience, is trying to be more myself and focus on more just enjoying the game, enjoying learning, enjoying the failures, the process, everything that comes with it, not getting too hard on yourself when you make a mistake, just trying to learn and do my best and get better,” he said.
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Wilson said he believes that mentality will help propel him to the next step of his NFL career.
“I think having that focus and that mindset is what’s going to get you to where you want to be, not dwelling over a mistake. Everyone’s just out here trying to help each other get better, especially the coaches. They’re trying to help me be the best player I can be,” he said.
Mike McDaniel’s assessment of Zach Wilson
Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel spoke about Wilson in his press conference last Tuesday. McDaniel acknowledged the adversity Wilson has faced during his short NFL career.
“There’s residuals to people just in general that have gone through things that are very beneficial at the quarterback position or just on the football team,” McDaniel said. “But as a football player, I think he’s come close to about as much scrutiny as one could have.”
Watching Wilson’s growth has been rewarding, McDaniel said.
“That’s what I see is a guy that is playing football with the empowerment of ‘You know what? I’m strong enough to handle anything,’ and a guy like that, that’s continually working at his craft, who has supreme arm talent, it’s cool to watch him grow, particularly in our offense,” he said.
Wilson looks like a player who has been through adversity but has “found his way through it,” McDaniel said.
McDaniel shared that he’s noticed that Wilson, like other quarterbacks with strong arms, sometimes throws late. That’s something McDaniel has been challenging the former BYU quarterback on.
On Wednesday, Wilson spoke with reporters about learning that revelation, which he said was something he hadn’t been told before, per Palm Beach Post’s Joe Schad.
“Here, they want that ball out before our guys are getting to their land marks. We have so much speed,” Wilson said. “You’re anticipating. I have to trust this receiver is going to be there, and they do a great job teaching it and helping us understand that’s how the offense is run. The focus is to not care much about the result. Every day my mindset is shifting to just playing with conviction and letting it rip.”
McDaniel has also witnessed Wilson implementing his new mentality of embracing failures and mistakes.
“It does not make him worse. He learns from it, and that’s realistically the best thing that’s gone on this offseason is I’ve seen a lot of people match those types of energies of supreme conviction and trying to be their very best. And you do that by boldly attacking stuff a lot of times that are uncomfortable,” he said.
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