When the Chicago Bears selected quarterback Justin Fields with the 11th overall pick in the 2021 NFL draft, they thought that they were finally getting their long-awaited franchise quarterback. In fact, they believed in him so much that they actually traded up from the 19th overall pick, giving up a future first-round selection and more to do so. Fields looked the part of a budding superstar early on in Chicago but by the 2023 season he was on his way out.
The problem with Fields in Chicago was inconsistency. He’d throw a jaw-dropping deep ball on one play, then turn around and miss a wide-open receiver in the flat by five yards. He’d rip off a 30-yard scramble just to give back almost half of that yardage by taking a bad sack. That streakiness followed him to Pittsburgh and apparently it’s still prevalent in New York.
The Jets and Giants held a join practice on Tuesday and Fields started off hot, hitting on all five of his throws against the Giants’ defense, including this absolute beauty to Tyler Johnson on the move.
Then came some team drills in which Fields went zero-for-four on pass attempts in a ‘move the ball’ period, according to Jets beat reporter Connor Hughes. He then capped off practice by connecting on two of three passes in red zone work.
Do Jets fans need to panic? No, of course not. Fields does seem to be getting better since his rough start to training camp, and he looked steady in his one drive in New York’s preseason Week 1 game. But this still appears to be his ceiling, that of a decent quarterback who spins between the highest of highs and alarmingly low lows.
The hope is that offensive coordinator Tanner Engstrand will have effective game plans for Fields every week once the regular season starts, scheming around his strengths while making the run game the main feature of the offense. But hopes only get you so far. In the Jets’ case, it might get them back to the postseason and end their 14-year playoff drought. Anything beyond that is pie-in-the-sky dreaming.
Fields could still prove me wrong; I hope he does. But Jets fans may want to be looking ahead to the 2026 or 2027 NFL drafts for their long-term answer at quarterback.