The good
Making good corners look bad
Wilson has a few plays on film where he made a defender look absolutely silly. The most famous is a big catch against the Dolphins’ Jalen Ramsey, who still has a reputation as one of the best cornerbacks in the NFL (whether entirely true or not).
For example, a better throw on this ball would likely have been a touchdown. Adams’ deep route kept the safety occupied, giving Wilson a one-on-one with Ramsey. He torched Ramsey on the double move, slowing his route pacing to lull Ramsey to sleep before putting a subtle move into his break that knocked the cornerback completely off balance.
In general, Wilson made Ramsey look silly in the Jets’ Week 14 loss to the Dolphins. Wilson had similar success in route-running against Ramsey in 2023 but had nothing to show for it due to poor quarterback play.
This is classic Garrett Wilson: taking a hard step outside before swimming over Ramsey’s punch. After taking the ball in stride, Wilson outran Ramsey for a good chunk of YAC. Rarely did you see Wilson operate with this much space after winning one-on-one over the middle — something Mike LaFleur did a much better job scheming up in Wilson’s rookie season.
Wilson also had some success one-on-one against Christian Gonzalez when the Patriots weren’t closely doubling him. On this play, Wilson faked Gonzalez out of his shoes, causing the cornerback to fall. It looks like Gonzalez got a hand or maybe even a grab on Wilson to slow him down, perhaps causing the overthrow.
On this play, Mike Williams came open quickly on the slant with the short middle of the field wide open pre-snap, making this an easy one-read play. But with man coverage across the board, both Gonzalez (covering Wilson slot left) and the outside cornerback continued to cover well past when the ball was released.
You can see Wilson threaten Gonzalez’s blind spot inside, causing the cornerback to start to flip his hips and giving Wilson tremendous separation to the sideline. Wilson often utilizes an unorthodox double-fake to fool cornerbacks.
Here, Wilson (slot left) made Taron Johnson, one of the best slot corners in the NFL, look silly. Although Johnson lined up with heavy inside leverage, Wilson’s hop release and hard outside step froze Johnson’s feet, giving Wilson the inside and an easy first down plus some YAC.
On another one, Wilson (wide left) beat Rasul Douglas, who has been a solid cornerback for a while. He swam over Douglas’ attempted punch, then came to a stop as Douglas attempted to sprint to catch up.
Wilson struggled far more against Patrick Surtain II, but he did have a few nice reps against the Defensive Player of the Year.
Here, Wilson’s initial release froze Surtain enough to allow him to work outside, although Surtain remained in his hip pocket. Wilson intentionally leaned his route vertically into Surtain’s coverage before snapping outside to gain separation. Rodgers felt the pressure and couldn’t get the ball there.
It is extremely difficult to create separation against Surtain. That makes catching difficult balls a necessity against him.
Pre-snap, Rodgers saw the single-high safety playing so deep that there would be plenty of space to throw to Wilson outside, even with the safety shaded slightly to the field.
Here, Wilson did a great job of showing late hands and did not clue Surtain in to when the ball was coming, allowing him to snag the catch in a tight space.
Difficult catches
Wilson made some excellent contested or difficult catches this season that he likely would not have caught in previous seasons.
He made the hands-down Catch of the Year against the Houston Texans. Enough said.
Wilson also had a second one-handed catch in that game (which may not have been as impressive as it looked because he may have run the route wrong, but we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt).
Wilson (slot right) was at a leverage disadvantage against the cornerback but was able to freeze his feet with a hop step and a quick outside jab. He had his hands up to defeat contact (which missed) and then ran away from the cornerback, coming down with the one-handed catch and then walking in for a score.
(It looks like he was supposed to be further upfield, which would have made it impossible for the cornerback to undercut the throw and given Wilson an easy catch.)
Here, he didn’t create a ton of separation but was able to hang on to the back-shoulder ball through the cornerback’s contact.
Wilson (slot right) got caught up in the cornerback’s contact and did not initially create much separation. However, he was able to use his arm to wall off the corner and maintain a measure of distance and then adjusted to the ball well in the air, coming down with the tough diving catch through pass interference.
Defeating contact (at times)
At times, Wilson uses a throw-by effectively to counter a cornerback’s punch at the point of contact. At others, he gets caught up and creates zero space for the quarterback to throw the ball.
YAC reputation
You can see why Wilson has a reputation for YAC. He had the most missed tackles forced among receivers. He can make people miss.
Miscellaneous
On this play in Week 2, Wilson did a phenomenal job of ad-libbing his route and reacting in midair to where Rodgers threw the ball. It was a critical 3rd-and-1. This is the big-boy kind of play you expect from your WR1.
Wilson did some good work in the blind spot of the bailing cornerback, snapping off his route where the cornerback could not see him.
The negative Rodgers effect
There were also plenty of times on film where Wilson was open and Rodgers either threw to Davante Adams or just didn’t target him.
Rodgers was asked about this play and claimed that the timing was off. It’s difficult to believe that was the case. What really happened here was that Wilson (split left) wiped away the cornerback’s hand and then mossed him to the corner — and Rodgers looked right at him but inexplicably chose not to release the ball. If that pass was thrown in rhythm, it could have been a huge play or even a touchdown.
It’s inconceivable that the ambiguous pre-snap look caused Rodgers to forgo the throw since he was looking right at it post-snap. Fear of the underneath safety falling back (especially after he got caught up in play-action and had his feet tangled up for a second) was absurd given the leverage and how far past him Wilson was.
Third and short. Wilson open on the slant. Rodgers doesn’t throw it. Sounds familiar?
When a receiver is in the slot, there should be more chances to play with coverage using motion and isolate him on a linebacker. On this play, Wilson ducked his shoulder and was as wide open as a receiver can be against the two-high shell.
Even on this play, though, Wilson had to cut his route flat as Rodgers scrambled outside the pocket. His tendency to drift straight into coverage was a repeat problem. But still, he was open enough that Rodgers should have been able to identify that the safety did not come down and quickly located Wilson’s route.
Here, even if Adams was Rodgers’ first read against a man coverage look, his eyes should have snapped to Wilson (slot left) far more quickly given how covered Adams was. (If he was afraid Minkah Fitzpatrick would come down and rob on the in-breaker, he could have confirmed post-snap that that was not the case.)
Rodgers still could have thrown the ball to Wilson but got scared of the pressure and quickly dumped the ball off to Breece Hall.
Wilson didn’t run the best route — he ran his feet more than actually covering ground with his release — but he got the cornerback to freeze outside and may have had a nice YAC opportunity.
He did a great job of turning upfield and getting open against Minnesota for what would have been the go-ahead and potential game-winning touchdown (the Jets were down 23-17 and would lose by that score). Rodgers overthrew him terribly.
Then, there was an even worse one. A receiver will never be this open.
