#One Zach Wilson skill has Phil Simms impressed with Jets QB

Phil Simms had a simple reason for venturing out to Jets practice last week.

“Cause I’m nosy,” the Giants legendary quarterback said.

Simms made the trip to Florham Park last Thursday along with his son, Chris, to watch Zach Wilson and the Jets practice and came away impressed with Wilson and how much the Jets defense challenged him.

“I thought it was truly game-like,” Simms said on Sunday. “They were all over it. The defense was really playing well. Every throw he made was into tight windows. I’m not going to say it was a very good, plus practice. It was a training camp practice that was really hard on the quarterback. He made some unbelievable throws that should have been caught. There was a lot of good and some bad but you need that in training camp.”

Simms was particularly impressed with Wilson’s throws on the move.

“When he moves to throw, he’s tremendous,” Simms said. “I just went, ‘Damn, if I was him, I’d move every play.’ He seems like he doesn’t miss when he is on the move.”

Like many people, Simms had been following the reports on Wilson’s practices and hearing some of the hand-wringing over practices that featured a lot of interceptions. Simms said practice statistics should be made illegal and he liked what Wilson said last week about trying things in practice and that being the place where he is supposed to make mistakes.

“Throwing interceptions in practice sometimes is a good thing,” Simms said. “You have to find the boundaries. You can be Charlie Checkdown and everyone will say you’re doing a good job and taking care of the ball, but you score no points. You have to take chances. You learn. I went through a whole training camp in 1986 where in seven-on-seven, in our scrimmage and in our team drills, I didn’t throw one interception. We play Dallas in the opening game and I took care of that real quick.”

Simms bounced back from that interception and the loss to the Cowboys to lead the Giants to their first Lombardi Trophy that year. He knows what it is like to be a highly scrutinized quarterback in New York. He lived it for 15 years with the Giants.

Wilson is now experiencing it for the first time, with every pass getting dissected. In his preseason debut on Saturday night against the Giants, Wilson went 6 of 9 for 63 yards and led the Jets to a field goal on one of his two drives. Simms was at the game and liked what he saw from Wilson.

“I thought Zach Wilson was very good, very good. Not just good, very good,” Simms said. “He showed great poise. He threw the football with power. He made some really good throws and stayed in the pocket. He did his job. There were a couple of the incompletions where he was too fast on the play. I’m sure he’s saying let’s catch the ball and get rid of it. He knew then and knows now I can take my time there. During the season, he won’t miss that throw.”

While Simms is a believer in Wilson and has been since before the NFL draft, he believes Wilson has the toughest circumstances of any of the first-round quarterbacks.

“I will say this of all the situations for the rookie quarterbacks, I would say he’s going into the hardest,” Simms said. “I think he has the hardest circumstances. The youth of the team, the division, the schedule, a new coach, everything you want to put into it. I think it’s the toughest one. I don’t think there will be much pressure on Trevor Lawrence. It’s Jacksonville, no one pays attention. I think the circumstances are more favorable for Trevor Lawrence to play better than Zach Wilson. That’s my thought right now. It could change.”