Zach Wilson’s next NFL team could be close to home.
Wilson is an unrestricted free agent this offseason and will be on the move if the Denver Broncos don’t re-sign him.
Rumblings out of this week’s NFL combine point toward Wilson joining the Las Vegas Raiders.
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Wilson spent one season with the Denver Broncos after being traded from the New York Jets. The former BYU quarterback was inactive all last season and didn’t take a single regular season snap as the third-string quarterback behind rookie Bo Nix and Jarrett Stidham.
Where will Zach Wilson play in 2025?
Vincent Bonsignore, a Vegas Nation reporter for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, believes Wilson’s next NFL home could be Las Vegas, based on what he has heard at the NFL combine.
“Obviously, there’s a long way to go with the Raiders QB room, but a name that keeps coming up here in Indianapolis, at least in terms of bringing into the mix, is Zach Wilson,” Bonsignore wrote on X.
Bonsignore also reported that the Raiders “are pursuing” Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford.
In response to a Raiders fan on X, Bonsignore said that with this Raiders leadership group, Raiders fans should “be prepared for some outside-the-box thinking. Geno Smith and Baker Mayfield come to mind.”
Both Smith and Mayfield are quarterbacks who had teams move on from them early in their careers but have since found success with new teams.
Could Wilson be the latest quarterback to shed the label of “bust”?
The NFL head coach who gave Smith another chance was Pete Carroll, who is the new head coach of the Raiders.
Smith spent three seasons in Seattle as the backup before he became the starter and a two-time Pro Bowler.
Why the Raiders could sign Zach Wilson
If the Raiders did sign Wilson, don’t expect him to be named the starter right away, especially if they also trade for Stafford.
But Wilson could be Carroll’s next reclamation project.
The former No. 2 overall pick could compete against Aidan O’Connell, Carter Bradley and Desmond Ridder for the backup spot and prove he’s ready to start in the NFL again.
Wilson is a younger option than O’Connell, who only won two out of seven starts last season, and offers a little more experience.
Being able to play close to his home state of Utah would likely be appealing to Wilson.
In October, he told BYUtv “Sports Nation” that the proximity to Utah and his alma mater was a perk of living in Denver, as the Deseret News reported at the time.
“It’s been fantastic, being close to home, being close to the Cougs. You know, back on the East Coast, every game was at 10:30 at night, so I get to actually stay up and actually watch some games now,” he said.
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