Look away, Joe Douglas. Robert Saleh, stop reading now.
Gates’ decision-makers don’t want to know what happens next.
They don’t want to read about how the team’s sophomore star, Garrett Wilson, coached this offseason.
Wilson spent most of his off-season in New Jersey and was a frequent visitor to Lifetime Fitness, where he would take on all-comers on the basketball court.
“A lot of my training has been playing hoops, man,” Wilson told The Post recently. “I like playing hoops a lot and working on different body moves and things I used to do when I was younger.
“I feel like that was kind of my superpower or my little secret sauce is to play basketball during the off period to get my lateral movement and all that stuff that translates to football.”
Before he was a star receiver, Wilson starred on the basketball court as well as the football field at Lake Travis High School in Texas.
He averaged 21 points per game there and received Division I scholarship offers before deciding to play football at Ohio State.
Coming off a 2022 season that earned him the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year title, Wilson returned to the field this winter and spring in action the Jets weren’t aware of.
“I’m not going to lie,” said Wilson, smiling. “This is the first time I’ve told them. They’ll find out when you write it.”
Wilson joked that he wasn’t playing hard before falling back on his fellow gym warriors realizing who the 6-footer with the big, tough upright is.
“They get to know me a few times. Sometimes they don’t. Seeing him dunk the ball might send chills across the One Jets Drive offices,” Wilson said with a laugh, “I’d hit a free throw and they’d say, ‘Wow, you’re so good.'” They start to ask.
“For the most part, they give me space and let me play and I know I’m playing like the rest.”
Wilson will be well known to Jets fans who flock to Florham Park this summer to see what he’s like with new quarterback Aaron Rodgers. The Jets report came into training camp on Wednesday with their first practice set to take place Thursday. While Rodgers is undoubtedly the center of the Jets’ world in 2023, Wilson is one of the young stars who dreams of continued success beyond 2023.
The Jets are counting on Wilson’s continued maturity to help Rodgers propel them into the playoffs.
Wilson, who turns 23 on Saturday, became the first Jets receiver to exceed 1,000 yards since 2015 when he made 83 catches for 1,103 yards and four touchdowns. It was an amazing season when you consider it’s his first year in the NFL and he played with three different starting players, all of whom had their share of struggles.
Now, Wilson is getting passes from Rodgers, a four-time MVP who is destined to suffer a Hall of Fame bust one day.
“It’s special. He’s really smart. Wilson said. “Every time I’m around him, I want to make sure I’m learning something and listening to him and taking advantage of what he’s saying. He’s a different cat, man. To me, he’s about as helpful as I make him be.”
“I want to be able to take all of this and use it for the next 10 years of my career.”
Wilson was making a pitching appearance in the Kansas City NFL Draft when the Rodgers trade became official and Rodgers reported to Florham Park.
A few days later when Wilson returned to New Jersey, he stopped by the team’s training center and met his new quarterback.
“I’m not going to lie. I was a little nervous catching the first pass,” Wilson said. “I was like, ‘Go ahead, Allen. [Lazard]Let me see how that thing pans out. Then you see it and you say, “Oh, this is Aaron Rodgers.” I was a little nervous. It’s one of those things where you don’t really sink in until you catch that ball or until you see him in a jersey and a helmet.
“It takes it easy. You’ll be nervous but then the ball will hit you in the chest.”
Wilson isn’t shy about expecting big things this Jets season with Rodgers, but he won’t brag about it.
“We have an idea of what we’re capable of, but now our job is to go out there and make it happen,” Wilson said. “All this talk isn’t going to do anything for us or talk about what we can do probably isn’t going to do anything for us in September.”
Rodgers has already compared Wilson to his first Green Bay receiver.
“His ability to go in and out of breaks. There are 17 more [Davante Adams] I played for a long time with who does it better than anyone else. Rodgers said on “The Pat McAfee Show” in May:
Wilson was touched by the comparison.
“It’s really cool. Just knowing he thinks so highly of me and the way I go about my work,” Wilson said. “For me, that’s motivation. I must continue. I have a lot to prove. For me, Davante was my favorite receiver.
“Now, even having your name in the same sentence as him is special but raises the bar.”
Once the 2022 season concluded, Wilson began studying film from the end of the season, when he felt he had become a true NFL wide receiver.
He wanted to see his victories as well as his mistakes.
He spent time recovering from the stress of his rookie year starting with a draft prep and finished accounting for 48 percent of the Jets offense in their season-ending loss at Miami.
He traveled home to Texas and visited Ohio before taking a six-day vacation in Hawaii.
It was also important for Wilson to spend time in New Jersey with his dog, Milo.
“This is home for me,” Wilson said. “I wanted to really live in my house. It felt like I hadn’t really lived in it yet. I loved it here. I felt like I hadn’t really lived here yet.”
“When I got my break, I wanted to spend some time here.”
For physical goals, Wilson wanted to gain weight. He finished last season at 179 pounds.
His target is to be at 195 when camp begins and to play at 190.
And of course, the off-season has included a lot of basketball, a sport he feels helps him on the football field.
“It really benefits from my ability to get off the ground and be reactive and adapt to the ball, coming to meet the ball, just my reaction, how I get off the ground when I have to, I don’t plan it but I do it,” said Wilson. “Basketball is a really interactive game versus football, you have steps calculated, you have everything planned out. To me, it’s like I have this seven-step route, but what if he jumps in and I can’t win in seven, I’m going to have to give him a move.
“Basketball helps with things like that, making it agile rather than just being a robot and running my seven-step route no matter if I’m covered, I’m covered. I think that’s what basketball helps me with.”
Now the Jets need to hope Wilson’s longitudinal dreams lead to Gridiron Extremes.