The Athletic has live coverage of the Broncos vs. Jets in NFL Week 6 action from London.
HERTFORDSHIRE, U.K. — Sometimes it looks like Garrett Wilson can breezily walk through any room, cool and collected. Watching him on days like Thursday, it’s as if the losing that’s pervaded his NFL career isn’t eating away at his competitive soul, even though anyone who knows him would tell you it is. As he strolled through the lawns of The Grove, the luxury hotel where the Jets are staying, he marveled at the colorful shrubbery in the garden, and the greenery lining the walls of the press conference room he walked into on Thursday.
Wilson knows, always, eyes are on him, but it doesn’t seem to affect him, his gait, his mood.
“How y’all doing?”
Wilson is at his best in front of a gaggle of microphones and cameras, or on the field with defensive players watching his every move. Most teams scheme to contain him, and so far this season they’ve failed. Statistically, Wilson is off to the best start of his career — and that matches the eye test. Wilson feels it too. When he walks to the line of scrimmage, he feels more comfortable figuring out how the defense is defending him, and what he can do with it. The game is slowing down for him. He’s making acrobatic catches few in the NFL could replicate, finding his spots, and playing within an offense he feels like is unlocking his potential in a way past ones haven’t. The Jets are using motion to move him around, lining him up everywhere. And it’s working. He’s fourth in the NFL in targets, sixth in receptions, seventh in yards and fifth in touchdowns. Pro Football Focus has him graded as a Top-10 receiver. He has the fourth-best “open score” among all pass-catchers, according to ESPN’s metrics.
“He’s a generational player,” quarterback Justin Fields said. “I’ve been with him a long time, so nothing that he does surprises me whatsoever.”
But none of those stats have amounted to wins. Wilson spent a lifetime before the NFL rarely losing in high school and at Ohio State, and then he joined the Jets. The losing torments him, and he doesn’t hide it — not on the field, not in his press conferences.
For three years, Wilson was known to throw his arms up, yell and stomp his feet on the sideline as the Jets crumbled around him, week after week. Late during their Week 4, Monday Night Football loss to the Dolphins, Wilson was spotted in a moment of passion, with coach Aaron Glenn’s arm around him, the receiver airing the frustration he was feeling.
“I think I’m handling it as well as you can,” Wilson said of the 0-5 start. “It’s obviously a tough thing to put so much into something and not have a win to show for it at this point. When you really break it down, it gets really tough when you think about the time and the hours and just the relationships you have that we’re not able to win together up to this point.
“But we still have a lot in front of us. A lot to prove in the sense of: This coaching staff didn’t know me when they came in. This coaching staff, these fans, to this day, I’ve got a lot to prove. Every week is an opportunity. I’m thankful for the opportunity to go out and compete every week and as long as the season’s still got some time at the end, I’m all right. Those hard times, it’s not for nothing. I truly believe that.”
Wilson is, and always will be, someone who wears his heart on his sleeve, and a player who craves winning so much that it hurts. Still, something feels different for now. He’s a captain for the first time in his life so the eyes of his teammates are on him now too. If they pay close enough attention, maybe they’ll learn something.
“He’s unbelievable, man,” said defensive tackle Quinnen Williams. “You’ve got a guy that’s super talented, super humble, who works his butt off every single day. A lot of guys see the things he’s doing and being the guy he is. As a guy who does the right thing every single day, his voice should be heard because if more guys can be like him, this team can go in the right direction.”
Wilson, for his part, didn’t feel like getting that “C” on his jersey meant he had to act a certain way. He saw it as validation for the way that he’s been acting the whole time.
“Those people respect the way I go about my business,” Wilson said. “They voted me to be captain to be myself. You’re still going to see that emotional side of me … but I wouldn’t say when I became captain it was ‘G, you gotta act a certain way.’ No, I took it as more special that my teammates deemed me worthy.”
Being himself means being emotional, and that shows that he cares — that’s how his teammates and his coaches see it. Passing game coordinator Scott Turner had never met Wilson before Glenn hired Turner this offseason, but he quickly found out what kind of star wide receiver he was inheriting. He marvels at Wilson’s steely focus, his approach to practice. When Wilson is frustrated, his coaches and his teammates know it because he tells them.
“But it’s not in a demeaning or nagging way,” Turner said. “It’s more uplifting — and that’s good.”
Everyone in the Jets building wants to win, full stop. But a secondary motivation: win so Wilson will get the recognition he deserves. Just think about all he’s already accomplished in the face of constant turmoil, turnover at quarterback, and with the lack of support he’s gotten around him at wide receiver for most of his career. This season, Wilson has accounted for 37.8 percent of the Jets’ receiving yards. His total (382 yards) is 319 yards more than the second-leading wide receiver on the roster (Tyler Johnson, with 63 yards). All non-Wilson wide receivers have combined for 158 receiving yards.
For his career, Wilson is already 10th in Jets history in receptions, and at his current pace this season (33 receptions in five games) he should finish the year seventh in team history, leap-frogging Jerome Barkum, Jerricho Cotchery and Curtis Martin. If he keeps this pace in 2026, he’s within striking distance of Mickey Shuler (438 catches), Wesley Walker (438), Laveranues Coles (459) and Al Toon (517). When his place in Jets history was brought up, Wilson thought more about how he’d talk about those things when his career is over than what they mean to him now.
“It’s cool. I feel like some years down the road when I’m done playing I’ll tell my kids about stuff like that, maybe use it to brag and get them to believe what I’m saying when that time comes,” Wilson said. “But truly I don’t even think about it.”
He’s too focused on doing his part to pull the Jets out of this hole they find themselves in. Wilson will face his toughest test yet Sunday when Broncos cornerback Patrick Surtain II, the reigning Defensive Player of the Year, lines up across from him. In three games against the Broncos, and thus against Surtain, Wilson has averaged 39 yards per game with no touchdowns. The Jets, though, won two out of three.
“I think he’s a great, great player,” Wilson said. “Anyt ime I get reps against him for me is like a game within the game … I feel comfortable going against DBs like him, I embrace the challenge but man, he’s really good. I’m excited. I hope I can get the best of him sometimes this weekend.”
Wilson feels like he has more tricks in his bag than the times they’ve played each other in the past. He feels like he has the ability to “negotiate defenses” from the slot, he trusts himself more when he’s running routes — and when he has the option to improvise on them.
“And then,” he said, “just having guys with me that are trying to get me there, not letting up at practice, at walkthrough, helping me get to where they now I want to get, where I want the team to get. I’m thankful … but I’m going to try to turn it up a notch.”
His teammates would be smart to do the same.
