The first rendition of Aaron Glenn’s New York Jets will have a new face under center. The Jets are all-in on quarterback Justin Fields, giving him the green light to start without competition in 2025 and, perhaps, 2026.
This is ostensibly Fields’ last chance to start in the NFL. Fall out of favor with a third team, and the promise of his first-round draft capital wears off. As he enters Year 5, there’s only so much potential to tap into, and if he falters under the bright lights of New York, he will simply run out of opportunities.
Needless to say, Fields needs to hit if he’s going to prevent the team from drafting his replacement early in the 2026 NFL Draft. He’s not taking that opportunity for granted.
Recently, Jets offensive coordinator Tanner Engstrand revealed an update on Fields’ offseason progress as he enters the most important year of his career.
"He's obviously a physically talented player," Engstrand said about Fields, ESPN's Rich Cimini shared (h/t Zac Wassink). "Everybody talks about the running — well, the guy's got an arm, too, and he does a great job with that. Mentally, he's phenomenal. He's been absolutely phenomenal so far, and we expect more out of that.
“There's just a lot of things that you can do with that type of player that's going to put stress on a defense and make that defensive coordinator stay up late at night as we get going into this thing."
Fields’ 2024 campaign was abbreviated. He was benched for Russell Wilson after six games and four wins, used afterwards as an extension of the ground game. In those six games, though, Fields was promising, setting career-best marks in terms of completion percentage, interception percentage, passer rating, and adjusted net yards per attempt.
However, it came in a small sample with serious training wheels. New York will be a run-first team in 2025, but unleashing Fields in the dropback game is necessary to realize the unit’s potential. For that, Fields must take a legitimate step.
"It is just growth," Engstrand added about Fields, per Antwan Staley of the New York Daily News. "Just going through his career, just continuing to stack experience along with it and ultimately ends up winning four games out of six. You just see some of the things that are starting to develop in his game, and then you look at that and you go, 'That’s pretty good, we can do some things with that.'"
With Fields under center, there’s a real chance the Jets win some games with smoke and mirrors, not unlike Pittsburgh did a season ago. If he’s going to stick, though, he’ll have to make good on his coordinator’s optimism.