Wilson shakes off late injury scare

HOUSTON — The Jets had an injury scare early in the fourth quarter when quarterback Zach Wilson limped off the field following a long scramble play that ended with him being sacked out of bounds.

Wilson clearly was favoring his right knee, the same knee that he suffered a PCL sprain in last month that caused him to miss four games. The doctors looked at Wilson on the bench, but he returned to the game without missing a snap.

Wilson said he expected to have issues with the knee, which he said is still not fully healed.

“That was something I knew coming in,” Wilson said. “I think it happened earlier in the game as well when I ran the keeper and threw it away. It’s going to do that sometimes. It’s not fully healed and we understand that, but I feel good to play and that’s why I’m playing. I understand that sometimes it’s going to shift and stretch a little bit, but there’s no damage that can come from that so you just have to walk it off and move on.”

Wilson said he never thought he would have to leave the game. Wilson struggled in his return, going 14 of 24 for 145 yards with an interception and a rushing touchdown. He said the knee was not on his mind during the game.

“Not at all,” Wilson said. “The reason is I knew that in practice the knee is not fully stable and that’s going to happen sometimes. There wasn’t any risk of reinjuring it by doing that kind of stuff. So in my head I was like, ‘Just walk it off.’ It just felt a little bit weak at the time. I knew that within a couple of minutes of walking it off it was going to feel perfectly fine. That’s what I told the guys, ‘I’m good.’ Once I go back on the field, I don’t even think about it. I knew it was one of those things that I have to deal with.”

➤ Wilson said there were issues with his helmet speaker and getting the calls from the coaches.

“The only issues we had today was sometimes the headset and the helmet cutting in and out, which made it difficult to hear the play calls,” he said. “We tried to figure that out on the sideline. For whatever reason, it was sputtering in and out. I’m not sure what the difficulties were. It just made it tough to get lined up correctly sometimes.”

This was the first game that Wilson played with offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur upstairs rather than on the sideline. He also was missing senior offensive assistant Matt Cavanaugh due to COVID protocols.

➤ LB Quincy Williams left the game with what Saleh said was a deep calf bruise. TE Trevon Wesco suffered a knee injury.