New York Jets QB Zach Wilson has put on some weight (the good kind)
When watching quarterback Zach Wilson in his many workout videos throughout the 2022 offseason, New York Jets fans often took notice of how much bigger and more muscular the 22-year-old appeared to be versus when they last saw him.
Turns out they were right.
Speaking to the media following practice at OTAs on Tuesday, Wilson revealed that he is now at 221 pounds after ending his rookie season at 208 pounds. He plans to enter the regular season at 218 pounds.
Zach Wilson ended last season at 208 pounds. He is currently 221. He wants to play at 218. #jets
— Connor Hughes (@Connor_J_Hughes) May 24, 2022
Wilson explained that a new diet is what helped him achieve great results.
“I think it was probably the first time in my life I’ve taken a bigger approach on the nutrition side of it rather than just the lifting,” Wilson said.
“Of course, every year you do your typical strength training and lifting and running, but typically you just try and get healthy. But I tried to actually have a written plan of how much to eat, when to eat, tracking everything down to the macro, have somebody help me with all that stuff. That’s probably been the biggest difference as far as just being able to put good weight on.”
"That dude's beefy. You guys seen him?"
– Zach Wilson on Robert Saleh 🤣 pic.twitter.com/9JAkFISxmh
— Jets Videos (@snyjets) May 24, 2022
Wilson also responded to Robert Saleh’s comment that he was “thick”, returning some praise of his own for the Jets’ head coach.
“That dude’s beefy. You guys seen him?”, Wilson said of Saleh.
If Wilson reaches his goal and enters the 2022 season at 218 pounds, he will climb much closer to the middle of the pack among quarterbacks in terms of weight.
In 2021, a weight of 218 pounds would have ranked 50th out of the 86 QBs to appear in a game (based on each player’s officially listed weight). That’s the same weight as teammate Mike White.
A weight of 208 pounds would have ranked 80th. It’s one pound heavier than Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray.
Wilson was officially listed at 214 pounds last season, which placed him 68th.
Adding weight and muscle will not help Wilson accurately complete 15-yard out routes or make good reads against New England’s Cover-0 defense, but it could certainly help improve his durability. Wilson missed four games with a PCL injury last season. Perhaps that experience is what motivated him to pack on some extra armor and strengthen his resistance to bone-shattering hits.
