What has felt inevitable for weeks has finally happened: the Jets and head coach Aaron Glenn have decided to pull the plug on the Justin Fields experience. As a result, Tyrod Taylor will take over as the starter for the immediate future.
Taylor, now 37, hasn’t logged extensive action over the past few seasons, but we can still take away a few things from his play this year and last year to understand how the Jets can best utilize him and what might look different in the offense moving forward. To do so, let’s start by looking at Taylor’s 2023 season, the last time he logged multiple starts in a season.
During the 2023 season, Taylor gave the Giants and their fans a small spark on an otherwise disappointing team. In his five starts, he posted a 2–3 record with a modest 89.1 passer rating and a 48.6 QBR. Among 43 qualified quarterbacks, Taylor finished 20th in EPA + CPOE Composite and 26th in Success Rate. These results were largely not terrible given the supporting cast.
Taylor also had the 6th-highest average depth of target (ADOT) in the league, staying true to his reputation as a deep-ball thrower willing to push the ball downfield. Because of this, he led the league in big-time throws (a Pro Football Focus charted stat), with 8.6% of his attempts falling charted into that category. Think of that as a metric for the throws PFF deems particularly impressive.
Another defining trait: Taylor heavily ignored the middle of the field. Nearly 82% of his drop backs resulted in throws to the boundary — one of the highest rates in football. To his credit, he was effective attacking that area in large part because of his propensity to make splash plays. The chart below shows EPA per drop back by field location: he ranked 8th when targeting the boundaries but 24th when throwing to the middle.
If you squint, you can see why the Jets kept Taylor around as Fields’ backup. On the surface, their differences aren’t that dramatic. Aside from Taylor’s obvious limitations as a scrambler at 37 (even though he could really move in his prime), a lot of their passing tendencies look similar. Both have historically thrown deep at high rates, held onto the ball too long which leads to avoidable sacks, and preferred attacking the boundaries rather than the middle of the field.
One of the biggest critiques of the Justin Fields era was how hard it made evaluating the offensive line and receivers. Fields’ habit of holding onto the ball forever put everyone around him in bad positions. In theory, it shouldn’t be that hard for Taylor to get the ball out faster than Fields, although his game against Tampa Bay where he held onto the ball longer than Fields did on average doesn’t exactly inspire confidence.
Fields currently ranks 40th out of 41 qualified quarterbacks in percentage of drop backs resulting in a throw under 2.5 seconds. Nearly 66% of his drop backs involve him holding the ball longer than that. Taylor, while not known as a quick-trigger passer, shouldn’t be anywhere near that slow. Based on his 2023 numbers, Jets fans should see at least some semblance of a quicker passing game: only 52% of his drop backs that year went beyond the 2.5-second mark nearly 14% lower than Fields.
**Summary**:
Overall, I wouldn’t expect a dramatic change in the production of the passing offense. The issues Taylor brings (holding the ball too long, taking sacks, struggling to work the middle) are all things the Jets have already dealt with this season. Taylor’s floor, though, should be higher than the roller coaster they’ve been on with Fields. At the same time, it’s easy to imagine the offense’s ceiling being lower with the lack of a threat in the QB run game.
Even so, it is hard to argue a quarterback change was not overdue. The lows have just been too low with Justin Fields, and the upside has been too far and in between. With so much uncertainty around the long-term futures of the Jets’ pass-catchers, going to a quarterback like Taylor should at least make evaluations cleaner which needs to be the goal the rest of the way. Expect Adonai Mitchell, Arian Smith, and John Metchie to get plenty of chances to play their way into having 2026 roles.
Let’s just hope Tyrod can stay healthy the rest of the way.
See More:
* [New York Jets Depth Chart](/new-york-jets-depth-chart)
* [New York Jets Roster](/new-york-jets-roster)