The team culture is more than fine spearheaded by Robert Saleh.
Mike White (who's 27 btw) has only played in about 4-5 full games in his career. Maybe he deserves more time to see what the Jets have in him? Zach Wilson needed a reset at minimum, plain and simple. I question if he's the guy based on what I've seen in 20 games and two seasons, but he needed to be benched right now.
And with the way Zach Wilson was playing most of the year, I don't blame the skill players for their frustration. When you can't even complete a simple screen pass, there's a major issue. That Pats game was one of the most horrific QB performances I've ever seen.
Saleh is babysitting. Which part of the team culture is he spearheading? The part where he let the QB situation get to the point where the team publicly turned on his 2nd year QB? The part where two WRs requested trades and another publicly complained about the team? The part where he has half his team practically celebrating after a
loss, just because they got their individual attention? Keyshawn may have wanted them to "throw him the damn ball" but at least he
caught it when they did so. The WR room has been embarrassing this season.
Mike White is 3 months away from being 28 (I knew he was still 27, but thought he was a January BD--still, closer to 28 than 26). He's played 5 full games and one partial game. The one partial is one of the two where he didn't throw at least 2 interceptions. And I would ask you to point to the long list of NFL starting calibre quarterbacks who had fewer than 6 games played at the age of 27. He's closer to 30 than he is to 25. It's a safe bet that his development as a player is about finished.
No disagreement at all about the fact that Wilson needs a reset. I think, considering the level of competition he faced in college, they should have had him carrying a clipboard for at LEAST a year right out of the draft.
As for the screen pass everyone has railed on about, I still don't think he missed that pass. I think he threw the ball away. There were two defenders between the receiver and the line of scrimmage and no blockers nearby from what I remember. Had that been a reception, there is a better than 50% chance it would have been a loss. That, combined with Saleh preaching non-stop about how Wilson can't take ANY chances and NEEDS to throw the ball away where there is any doubt created the situation in the second NE game. Lafleur pulled the same shit against GB in the 2019/2020 playoffs, where he ran the game almost as if they didn't HAVE a quarterback because he was terrified of Garoppolo throwing an interception (only 8 pass attempts the whole game). It was ridiculous then and it was ridiculous now.
When the WR room is a mess and a QB whose whole rep was based on his creativity is being coached to take NO risks (and the alternative is a guy who throws picks at nearly 3x the rate as the guy you have no confidence in), at SOME point, you have to look to Mike Lafleur as the problem. The best stretch of football in Wilson's career came in the final 7 games on his rookie season. 5 TDs to just 2 INTs, his completion percentage went up, he had a few games where he racked up some yards on the ground, and all against mostly playoff teams and with a league worst defense behind him. Those were the seven months that Lafleur wasn't working with him (they brought in his personal guy).