Oh, how quickly things can change.
ESPN’s Rich Cimini revealed that the New York Jets plan on making a quarterback change ahead of the Week 8 contest against the Cincinnati Bengals.
On Tuesday, October 21, Jets owner Woody Johnson threw Justin Fields under the bus at the league meetings in New York City.
“If you’re Justin Fields and you’re sitting at home and suddenly your phone starts popping with those quotes that came out of the owners meetings from Woody on Fields … This is the highest level of the organization who very clearly does not believe in him at all and is very clearly let’s move on and putting a large part if not all the blame on going 0-7 on Justin Fields. If you’re Fields and you hear that, don’t you wanna be like, ‘you know what, dude? Appreciate it, but cut me, trade me, move on from me. I’m done. I don’t want to be here.’ I think that we could have some drama coming down the line here with the quarterback, after hearing some of those comments specifically about him. Which were accurate, but an attack, it was an attack,” NFL Insider Connor Hughes said on “Jets Final Drive.”
“Justin Fields does seem like someone who generally tries to avoid controversy, but I don’t think he has ever been confronted with this kind of situation. I was actually thinking, like I don’t know, I feel like there are teams that could actually, the [Baltimore] Ravens might be better off with Justin Fields than Cooper Rush at quarterback, frankly. Like, for a team that has an offense built around a mobile quarterback, like, why not go and trade for Justin Fields? Pay him $10 million next year, and however much they owe him the rest of this year. That’s a thought I had today,” Zack Rosenblatt of The Athletic explained on “Jets Final Drive.”
Time Moves Pretty Fast in the NFL
The Jets signed Fields to a two-year $40 million contract this offseason with $30 million guaranteed. Shortly thereafter, they crowned him the QB1 and built the team around him.
Now, after multiple brutal weeks of play, Fields is headed to the bench. ESPN’s Rich Cimini revealed that head coach Aaron Glenn will announce the switch to Tyrod Taylor on Wednesday, October 22.
Once you make that change, it’s hard to put that toothpaste back in the tube. How can you ever go back to Fields outside of injury?
“I’m very curious to see what the next step is. What happens if and when he does get benched? A lot of times, when teams bench the quarterback, they make them third string. Are they going to do that with Justin Fields? Are they going to make Brady Cook the No. 2? Or are they going to keep rolling with Fields [as the backup] with a decent chance he has to play again because Tyrod Taylor gets hurt all the time. So that is going to be an interesting factor in all this,” Rosenblatt said on “Jets Final Drive.”
The Owner’s Comments Complicate Fields’ Future With the Jets
Mr. Johnson said, “If we can just complete a pass, it would look good.”
He was talking about Fields. Fields is still on the team. In fact, he is under contract for the remainder of 2025 and 2026. Fields’ representatives did a good job negotiating a $10 million guarantee for next season.
After those comments, will the Jets be forced to move on? Can Fields keep coming to work and operating after getting embarrassingly dressed down by the owner of the team?
He was one of the six selected team captains before the season. The Jets’ current regime went all in on Fields this offseason. Now it seems like they could be all out less than halfway through the season.
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