The breakout year that turned Zach Wilson into the draft's No. 2 QB

There are figurative hurdles, and there's the barrier Zach Wilson had to surmount as he evolved into the second-most coveted quarterback of the 2021 NFL Draft.

It was spring 2020 in San Clemente, California, in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the field at San Juan Hills High School was closed. Wilson was staying nearby at the family home of Isaac Rex, his tight end at BYU. Undeterred by the closure, the teammates hopped the school fence to run patterns in the afternoon sun.

The figurative hurdles would appear later in the form of an open competition at training camp for Wilson's job and scheduling turmoil that almost cost him his 2020 season. The campaign wound up rocketing him up draft boards, as good an outcome as Wilson could have hoped for this time last year. The native of Utah posted up for months in Southern California to throw daily, study film at the Rex house, and toe the sideline scrutinizing the habits that helped his quarterback trainer's veteran clients stick in the NFL.

He drove a bit for DoorDash, too, but let's park that memory. What stuck with Rex was the goal that animated Wilson's every move: to someday go down among the greats.

"He wants to do it, man," said Rex, who caught a dozen of Wilson's 33 touchdown passes in 2020. "He wants to be like Mahomes, like Rodgers, like Manning and Brady. That's his focus."

Contrary to that high aim, Wilson wasn't predestined to go No. 2 overall to the New York Jets, his expected fate when NFL teams make their first-round selections Thursday. Recovery from shoulder surgery and a thumb fracture had disrupted his sophomore season in 2019 - the first he opened as BYU's starting quarterback - threatening his perch atop the 2020 depth chart. More than that could have gone awry and tanked his draft stock this past season, or at least prevented Wilson from eclipsing every prospect not named Trevor Lawrence.

But he had no need to fret. Rather than let his backups, Baylor Romney and Jaren Hall, overtake him at camp, Wilson earned back the top job and authored the most accurate season by a quarterback in BYU history, no trivial feat at Steve Young's alma mater. That he got the opportunity to shine was a minor miracle; the Cougars had to scramble to build a new schedule over the summer after Power 5 teams pulled out of nonconference play.

Across a redrawn 12-game slate last fall, BYU surged to 11 wins and often played on ESPN in prime time, familiarizing the country with Wilson's mobility, big arm, pearly grin, and underdog motto - "Prove Them Wrong" - that he wears on a wristband. Efficient and savvy with the ball, he seemed to average multiple exceptional plays per game, spurring the breakthrough that his coaches considered inevitable so long as he stayed healthy.

"Right from the start of fall camp, he looked like a veteran player," said Aaron Roderick, BYU's quarterbacks coach and newly promoted offensive coordinator.

"If the play was simple, he'd keep it simple. If the situation called for throwing it away, he'd throw it away. If there was a good time to take a chance, take a risk, he understood when those times were - and he let it rip."

To John Beck, the retired pro quarterback and BYU alum who tutors Wilson at his 3DQB academy, Wilson stands out among prospects for his shiftiness, his hand and foot speed, and his knack for processing and exploiting what defenses give him. Combined with his arm strength, he has the precision, touch, and creativity to connect on spectacular attempts, as Wilson reminded scouts and peers with this back-foot bomb at BYU's pro day:

To be clear, Wilson blows minds during games, too. Against Texas State on Oct. 24, he rolled toward the right sideline and planted his feet at midfield before heaving a cross-body touchdown pass to receiver Dax Milne near the far pylon.

On Dec. 22, when BYU crushed Central Florida in the Boca Raton Bowl, Wilson hit Rex in stride on a 15-yard dig route without looking at him, his eyes fixed to the right of Rex's path to freeze a meddlesome defensive back. Roderick only detected the trickery when he reviewed the tape.

"Fans might not have even noticed how special that was," the coach said.

The 2020 season was Rex's redshirt freshman campaign, for which tight end and quarterback readied themselves by living together in spurts from last April through July. Wilson made several long drives to San Clemente to be close to 3DQB, where he trained with Beck in the morning before shooting hoops with Rex or throwing to him at San Juan Hills. Rex's parents dubbed their guest room the "Zach Room," to which he'd retreat with his iPad to watch BYU and NFL film. (This was also when Wilson picked up some DoorDash shifts, insistent that his hosts shouldn't have to foot the bill to feed him.)

At 3DQB, Wilson job-shadowed the likes of Matt Ryan, Matthew Stafford, Jared Goff, and Justin Herbert, stepping in for each morning's final throwing session after the marquee names got their reps in.

This setup stoked Wilson's competitiveness, Beck said, and it showed him how Pro Bowlers and the NFL's reigning offensive rookie of the year prepare to lead their respective offenses. When Beck tuned into BYU games last fall, he saw a confident quarterback who didn't get fooled or rushed, who made difficult passes look routine, and who ran for 10 TDs to boot.

"He was in charge of what was going on on the field," Beck said. "You could tell."

Provo, Utah, obviously isn't New York, where Sam Darnold flopped and a single Jets quarterback - Brett Favre, a mercenary acquisition in 2008 - has made the Pro Bowl this century. But if Gang Green does as projected and drafts Wilson second overall, at least he'll already know what it's like to occupy a hot seat. To play quarterback at BYU is to succeed Young, Jim McMahon, and a string of Heisman Trophy finalists and former college stars, Beck among them.

That storied history saddles the new guy with expectations, scrutiny, and pressure, all inescapable features of NFL life. Even during Wilson's uneven 2019 season, as his surgically repaired right shoulder stalled short of max velocity, Roderick said Wilson endeared himself to teammates by gritting through discomfort to make winning plays. On consecutive Saturdays against Tennessee and USC, late-game Wilson magic - a 64-yard completion down the sideline and a QB draw that went for a touchdown - helped prolong games that BYU won in overtime.

Wilson, Beck said, was less preoccupied with his draft position last offseason than he was with mastering BYU's system, another favorable trait for a would-be franchise quarterback. The club that selects Wilson will think him worthy of the title. His job is to prove them right.

"There's going to be a lot of things thrown at him (in the NFL). I already told him: 'Hey, if you go to the Jets, don't be surprised if, all of a sudden, you go downtown in New York and there's some big, gigantic billboard that's got your face on it,'" Beck said.

"How can he use the experience of this last year where those things weren't important to him? He wasn't worried about his legacy at BYU. He was just trying to play his best football. I think that's what it's going to take."

Nick Faris is a features writer at theScore.