Zach Wilson got confused and knocked around by New England, but it’s hard to be surprised. That’s a movie, after all, that we’ve seen many times before.
It’s tough for any rookie quarterback to play well, but Bill Belichick and his group is better than most at putting together game plans that get inside their heads.
In the past 20 years, there have been 16 quarterbacks selected in the first round who have played against New England in their first year. The vast majority of them have had pretty lousy outings in their first game against the Patriots.
Combined, those quarterbacks have gone 3-13, with 13 touchdown passes and 23 interceptions. They’ve completed 55 percent of their passes and averaged only 197 passing yards.
The sack numbers aren’t quite as bad as you might expect – just 35.
| FIRST-ROUND ROOKIE QUARTERBACKS AGAINST NEW ENGLAND | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Player | Result | Com | Att | Yds | TD | Int | Sk |
| 2003 | Leftwich, JAX | L 13-27 | 21 | 40 | 288 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| 2004 | Roethlisberger, PIT | W 34-20 | 18 | 24 | 196 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 2006 | V.Young, TEN | L 23-40 | 15 | 36 | 227 | 0 | 2 | 5 |
| 2009 | Sanchez, NYJ | W 16-9 | 14 | 22 | 163 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 2012 | Tannehill, MIA | L 16-23 | 13 | 29 | 186 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| 2012 | A.Luck, IND | L 24-59 | 27 | 50 | 334 | 2 | 3 | 1 |
| 2013 | E.Manuel, BUF | L 21-23 | 18 | 27 | 150 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 2015 | Mariota, TEN | L 16-33 | 3 | 6 | 32 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| 2016 | J.Goff, LAR | L 10-26 | 14 | 32 | 161 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| 2017 | Watson, HOU | L 33-36 | 22 | 33 | 301 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| 2018 | Darnold, NYJ | L 3-38 | 16 | 28 | 167 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| 2018 | J.Allen, BUF | L 12-24 | 20 | 41 | 217 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| 2019 | D.Jones, NYG | L 14-35 | 15 | 31 | 161 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
| 2020 | J.Herbert, LAC | L 0-45 | 26 | 53 | 209 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| 2020 | Tagovailoa, MIA | W 22-12 | 20 | 26 | 145 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| 2021 | Z.Wilson, NYJ | L 6-25 | 19 | 33 | 210 | 0 | 4 | 4 |
Statistics compiled using search tools at Pro-Football-Reference.com
—Ian Allan