Is Zach Wilson the next Detroit Lions quarterback?

Zach Wilson draft negatives

As stated, the biggest knocks on Zach Wilson are about his competition and injury history but there are other things that must be looked at in evaluating a quarterback prospect. Wilson possesses many very good traits as outlined in the “positives” section of this article but some positives have a negative side to them. As we mentioned, Zach Wilson is a gunslinger with the good and bad that comes with that mentality.

Obviously, the good is not having fear when making throws and being confident in your arm or ability to make plays. The negative side is that when pressured, at times gunslingers are capable of throwing the ball into places that they shouldn’t have just because they aren’t afraid of the risk. This applies to Wilson, as well.

While he often makes good decisions (56 career touchdowns versus 15 career interceptions) thanks to his studying and work ethic, he can be made to throw into double coverage or a bad spot when teams change-up their coverages. He can get set on where he’s going with the football prior to the snap and that leads to an occasional bad throw.

His only other tendency is to roll out, sometimes even when he has a clean pocket, which can get young quarterbacks into trouble at the next level. He has the athleticism to overcome that problem in college but the linebackers and hybrid safeties that patrol the line of scrimmage in the NFL will make him pay.

Baker Mayfield is an example of a quarterback that has gotten himself sacked a higher amount of times by running when he has a pocket and cutting down the areas of the field that he can threaten. Other than those basic shortcomings, which many young players have, he isn’t particularly a risky athlete in his play-style.

Of note, Wilson has recovered from shoulder surgery and surgery to repair a torn labrum in his shoulder from his freshman and sophomore seasons and seems to be playing his best football in 2020.

His shoulder issues apparently stemmed from problems he had during his high school career but that has been made worse by hits from college defenses, according to the BYU-run Daily Universe website. In the interview, Wilson admitted that problems manifested themselves after games, usually the Monday following a contest.

While Wilson checks almost every box of what NFL teams want in a modern-era quarterback, the injury history could scare some teams off. The medical components of his evaluations will be of most concern but many have him as QB3 and a few have listed him as high as QB2 in this draft.

I’ve been searching through some mock drafts that have been happening and Wilson is consistently going in the Top-10. In this mock draft from Ryan Wilson of CBS Sports, he has projected five quarterbacks to go in the Top-10. Spoiler alert: Lawrence, Wilson, Fields, Mac Jones, and Trey Lance all go.