{"id":904062,"date":"2026-05-29T03:30:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T03:30:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/904062\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T03:30:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T03:30:18","slug":"jets-garrett-wilson-learned-lessons-during-time-on-injured-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/904062\/","title":{"rendered":"Jets’ Garrett Wilson learned lessons during time on injured list"},"content":{"rendered":"

Garrett Wilson had never been in such a spot. <\/p>\n

Before last season, he\u2019d never missed a game in the NFL, a constant on Jets teams mostly filled with anything but those. He\u2019d never really had an injury happen on the field, either, he recalled Thursday while addressing reporters for the first time since that all changed in October.<\/p>\n

Wilson hyperextended his knee in Week 6 and missed two games. Then, after aggravating it in Week 9, he ended up on injured reserve and ultimately was shut down for the rest of the 2025 campaign, ending with just 395 receiving yards in seven games. <\/p>\n

It cost him a chance at a fourth consecutive 1,000-yard season to start his career as well as a chance to try to help fix the Jets\u2019 woes after he committed to being a franchise cornerstone with his $130 million extension the previous summer.<\/p>\n

In a way, Wilson admitted Thursday, he looked back at what transpired and thought, \u201cAlright, maybe you needed it.\u201d Maybe he needed to change his perspective. <\/p>\n

Maybe he was getting a little too comfortable, taking for granted the future practices and games to correct what went wrong. Maybe he needed a reminder that he only gets one chance at this NFL career.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really allowed me to change my point of view and just kind of look at some things from a different angle,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cSo I don\u2019t want to sit here and act like I didn\u2019t get anything out of [the injury], but not playing football, which is ultimately what I was brought here to do, it hurt. It\u2019s never been brought upon me like that, so it was a little different.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"GarrettGarrett Wilson catches a pass during Jets OTA\u2019s on May 27, 2026 in Florham Park, N.J. Bill Kostroun \/ New York Post<\/p>\n

Nearly seven months after his last game, Wilson said he felt great and oozed with positivity. He said that this season feels different from last year, that Gang Green \u201ccan talk about the Super Bowl\u201d and \u201ccan talk about the playoffs\u201d because the freshness in Year 1 of the new regime has morphed into comfort in Year 2. Even though there are final steps in his return that Wilson can\u2019t mimic in offseason workouts conducted without pads, he expressed excitement to be back.<\/p>\n

Head coach Aaron Glenn said he\u2019s \u201ctypical Garrett\u201d and getting all of the needed reps. During the Jets\u2019 OTAs session Thursday, that materialized in individual drills and through catches, making everything seem a bit more normal for the Jets. He took the initial steps toward developing chemistry with Geno Smith<\/a>, who said Wilson makes him better and who will mark the eighth quarterback to throw him a touchdown pass if they connect.<\/p>\n

\"GarrettGarrett Wilson is all smiles while he talks with reporters during Jets OTA\u2019s on May 28, 2026 in Florham Park, N.J. Bill Kostroun \/ New York Post<\/p>\n

There has been plenty of change on offense, plenty of moving pieces that need to settle into place before Gang Green opens the season against the Titans on Sept. 13 and the NFL\u2019s fourth-worst offense in points and yards last season gets a chance to officially revive itself. Even the wide receiver room around Wilson will look different in 2026, with veteran Tim Patrick and rookie Omar Cooper Jr. joining him. He has spent the offseason learning yet another offensive system, praising Frank Reich\u2019s scheme as one that empowers wideouts and other skill-position players \u2014 something reflective of \u201ca guy that\u2019s played quarterback and kind of gets it as far as the instincts side of football.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is probably one of the offenses that I\u2019m gonna look back on in a few years and love the most,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGet the insider\u2019s view on Gang Green\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Jets by Brian Costello, a weekly Sports+ exclusive.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Even after the losing-filled seasons, even after the injury-filled 2025, even after other pieces of the Jets core who arrived with Wilson have been discarded, his desire to win with the Jets \u2014 a vision that he shares with recently extended Breece Hall after they both were drafted by Gang Green in 2022 \u2014 hasn\u2019t faded.<\/p>\n

In his eyes, that dream has just been delayed, and now, after the injury and the lengthy recovery that followed, Wilson will get a fresh start.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you are hurt,\u201d Glenn said of Wilson, \u201cit just seems like you\u2019re distant from the team for the most part because you\u2019re in the training room getting treatment when everybody else is doing things to get ready for a game. So, mentally that can mess with you a little bit, but I think he\u2019s done a good job of making sure he got himself ready to play.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Garrett Wilson had never been in such a spot. Before last season, he\u2019d never missed a game in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":904063,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2051],"tags":[7,2310,226,1917,255,2321,2097,6,9],"class_list":["post-904062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-jets","tag-football","tag-garrett-wilson","tag-jets","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-jets","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkjets","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116655752922452342","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=904062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904062\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/904063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=904062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=904062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=904062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}