A year ago around this time, QB Justin Fields was experiencing a renaissance under Mike Tomlin with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Although he wrangled $30 million guaranteed from the New York Jets this offseason, the mojo failed to transfer. After going 4-2 in Pittsburgh, he is off to a 0-5 start in New York, and there are calls for his job.
In a remarkable stat line, Fields and the Jets posted a minus-10 passing yards stat line yesterday. Fields went 9-for-17 passing for 45 yards, but he also took nine sacks for minus-55 yards. It’s the second time this season he’s thrown for under 50 gross passing yards in a game. And yet in the other three games, he threw for over 200 yards.
During his time with the Steelers, Justin Fields only threw for 200-plus yards in two of his six starts. But they never needed him to throw the ball much, and they didn’t ask him to. In three of his six starts, he attempted fewer than 25 passes. He threw for five touchdowns, rushing for five more, with only one interception.
Through five games with the Jets, Fields is 80-of-123 for 799 yards. Notably, he still hasn’t thrown an interception, a continuation of his clean play through the air that the Steelers seemed to introduce into his game last year. But he also has just four touchdown passes, plus three rushing touchdowns.
After the Jets’ most recent loss—now 0-6 overall, Fields missing one game due to injury—rookie head coach Aaron Glenn is already facing pressure. New York released Aaron Rodgers to sign Justin Fields, and Rodgers is 4-1 with the Steelers.
After a reporter asked if Fields would be the Jets’ starter next week, Glenn said, “Come on, man. What kind of question is that?”. After the reporter pressed further, Glenn described the ebb and flow of the season, adding, “Come on. You know better than that”.
Indeed, we all do, and we know teams very rarely would bench a quarterback they committed $30 million guaranteed to. That’s more than the Steelers were willing to pay for Justin Fields, instead signing Rodgers for a bargain.
Fields did have a good game against the Steelers in Week 1, with some suggesting that some of his remaining champions within the organization were saying, “I told you so”. But he turned back into a pumpkin after that, and it’s easy to wonder how much longer Glenn will be able to respond to that question with such incredulity.
The 11th-overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, Justin Fields has never proven to have the passing chops to survive, let alone thrive, in the NFL. He sustained very brief success with the Steelers during a cameo while filling in for Russell Wilson. Otherwise, he is now 10-33 in his career as a starter. It’s Cinderella’s stepsister fitting into her shoe by chopping her toes off. And yes, the original Brothers Grimm story is much more brutal than the Disney version.
