In this offseason series, Athlon Sports' Doug Farrar asks the One Big Question for all 32 NFL teams — the primary discussion point that will measure ultimate success (or not) for every franchise. We wrap up the AFC East with the New York Jets, who are hoping that Justin Fields can do for them what Aaron Rodgers never could — become a franchise quarterback who can take things to the next level with a competitive roster around him.
The Chicago Bears selected Ohio State's Justin Fields with the 11th overall pick in the 2021 draft, hoping that Fields would break two quarterback curses: Ohio State's, and Chicago's.
Neither hope came to fruition. After a dominant time with the Buckeyes, Fields struggled in a series of offenses that failed to play to his strengths, and magnified his weaknesses. In three seasons with the Bears, he completed 578 of 958 passes (60.3%) for 6,674 yards, 40 touchdowns, 30 interceptions, and a passer rating of 82.3.
When the Bears selected USC's Caleb Williams with the first overall pick in the 2024 draft, Fields was already out the door — Chicago traded him to the Pittsburgh Steelers for a conditional sixth-round pick in the 2025 draft that would turn into a fourth-round pick if Fields played at least 51% of the Steelers' snaps, which also didn't happen.
Fields was demoted to backup once Russell Wilson's calf injury was a thing of the past, and Pittsburgh's own crazy-quilt quarterback situation continued down that path. Fields was relegated to package plays in which he was running around in a sub-Taysom Hill role for a few snaps per game — if at all.
To be fair, Fields' running ability has always been his strong suit. Through his NFL career, he's gained 2,505 yards and scored 19 touchdowns on 419 rushing attempts, with 85 forced missed tackles, and 11 runs of 15 or more yards. And in 2022, he became the third quarterback in pro football history, behind Michael Vick in 2006 and Lamar Jackson in both 2019 and 2020, to rush for over 1,000 yards in a season with 1,143 on just 160 attempts.
Several of those breakaway runs happened in Chicago's two games against the Detroit Lions in 2023, and once the New York Jets made Aaron Glenn their new head coach on January 22, 2025, Glenn drew on his experience as the Lions' defensive coordinator to tab his new quarterback.
Fields was a free agent as the Steelers had declined his fifth-year option after the trade, so Glenn's Jets took a shot on Fields' potential with a two-year, $40 million contract that includes $30 million guaranteed. That makes Fields one of the NFL's lowest-paid starting quarterbacks, so there's no guarantee that this will work out, but Glenn is all-in on what he's seen already from Fields.
"Quiet confidence," Glenn said at the owners meetings on March 31, when asked what he liked about his new starting quarterback. "You go back and watch him at Ohio State, big arm. Understands how to run an offense when given the opportunity, and just a really, really good person — a really intelligent person that knows football. I think three of his four biggest rushing days came against Detroit.
"Listen, obviously, we wanna utilize his legs, all right? But we also want him to play quarterback. This offseason, we're gonna allow him doing OTAs to go out there and run an offense. And we're gonna make sure we surround him with the right type of people. It's gonna make him successful. Against us [the Lions], he did create some damage. And that is one of the reasons why I want him to be a part of what we're doing.
"I think he's a dynamic player, and I think there's more that we can get out of that player, and I'm looking forward to that."
Regarding Fields' untapped potential, Glenn was just as sure about that.
"That's why I said we're gonna let him play quarterback. I mean, that's what he's always wanted to do. And listen, I'm not saying that he hasn't had a chance to play that, do that in other places, and that's not my issue. But I know what I want to do with that player. And I obviously want to utilize his legs, but I also want to give him a chance to go out there and play quarterback."
New Jets offensive coordinator Tanner Engstrand, who had been the Detroit Lions' passing game coordinator from 2022-2024, will be charged with helping Fields take the proverbial next step as a passer.
"He is just a talented individual in all facets," Engstrand said of Fields in late May. "He's obviously a physically talented player. Everybody talks about the running, well, the guy's got an arm, too, and he does a great job with that. And mentally, he's phenomenal. He's been absolutely phenomenal so far, and we expect more out of that, and it's just a lot of things that you can do with that type of player that is going to put stress on a defense and make that defensive coordinator stay up late at night as we get going into this thing."
The hope is obviously that Fields is able to take the positive elements of the Ben Johnson passing game, which Engstrand helped create and run, add his own increased acumen, and bring his unique abilities as a runner to the table.
If that all happens, watch out.
As a thrower on the move, Fields already has a lot on the ball. Last season when he had opportunities, Fields completed 17 of 34 passes outside the pocket for 229 yards, 124 air yards, one touchdown, no interceptions, and a passer rating of 81.6. And he was effective against the blitz in 2024 — against five or more pass-rushers, he completed 24 of 41 passes for 268 yards, 104 air yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions, and a passer rating of 94.4.
That's the good news. Then, there's the problematic stuff. As I wrote in March when Fields was still a free agent...
The issues in Fields' game at this point lie more with the first-reaction stuff. Fields doesn't always see things clearly and quickly, he's often too slow to discern route concepts coming open, and this leads to him leaving plays on the field when they're there to be made. There are of course no metrics for the plays a quarterback could have made and didn't, but there are too many of them on Fields' 2024 tape.
So there is work to be done, and everybody is aware of that. One thing that will undoubtedly help Fields' efforts is the reunion with receiver Garrett Wilson, who caught Fields' passes at Ohio State in 2019 and 2020. Wilson has become one of the NFL's best young players at his position, despite the Jets' own quarterback issues since he was the 10th overall player selected in the 2022 draft.
"Yeah, I mean, it's been good," Fields said in late May of his renewed relationship with Wilson. "G has been my guy for a long time now, so I really feel like we haven't skipped a beat out on the practice field. It's been great so far just being with him."
It could be credibly said that this is the first time in Justin Fields' NFL career that he has the combination of the belief of his team, and the kind of schematic structure in place that any young quarterback needs for success. Fields, who turned 26 on March 5, las a long way to go in a new system, but perhaps this is the environment required for the breakout year everybody has been waiting for.
