Justin Fields won’t succeed unless Jets completely change their approach

Justin Fields’ first five games with the New York Jets have been a roller coaster, with a promising debut followed by performances that fall short of expectations for a full-time starter.

In the most recent outing, he finished with –10 net passing yards against Denver, yet head coach Aaron Glenn opted not to turn to Tyrod Taylor despite vocal fan calls for a change.

To be fair, while Fields hasn’t been sharp all the time, the play-calling also hasn’t helped. He’s been locked into staying in the pocket, as 85 percent of his throws this season have been from the pocket, the highest rate since his rookie year.

And he has been given just 14 designed runs through five games. For a quarterback whose top weapon is mobility, that usage is confounding.

Now, to make matters murkier, Fields revealed he sustained a “huge contusion” in the Dolphins game, and that his legs “haven’t been feeling the best” since. That at least offers a plausible reason for his reduced scrambling.

Perhaps the most fascinating part of it, back to the play-calling, is how the Jets are publicly handling the struggles. Offensive coordinator Tanner Engstrand told reporters on Thursday that they are trying to put Fields in a position to succeed and that they like how he is talking about being more aggressive without being reckless with the ball.

While finding a balanced level of aggressiveness is reasonable, it's hard to understand how he's being put in a position to succeed.

Are the Jets actually putting Justin Fields in a position to succeed?

The advanced metrics paint a harsh picture. According to Pro Football Focus, Fields ranks second-to-last in overall grade under pressure (37.0) and dead last in passing grade (28.1) this season. That kind of drop when under duress highlights how vulnerable he becomes when the pocket collapses.

To make the contrast starker, earlier in the season, he logged a 90.4 PFF passing grade in the opener, one of the best marks of his career. But that performance is increasingly an outlier.

The storyline the Jets are selling, that they’re building an offense to let Fields be more aggressive without being reckless, is not showing. Despite public assurances from Engstrand about getting him moving, getting the ball out quickly, or leveraging his legs, the numbers suggest otherwise.

So then it shifts to action, as in, are the Jets going to show what they're talking about against the Carolina Panthers on Sunday? That's partially a matter of Fields' legs being good, but even if they need to drop him back as a pocket passer again, attention will be on him to make quicker throws.
That much can still be done no matter what.

There’s also the question of how healthy Fields will be and how much Engstrand’s play-calling will challenge him to expand his role. Despite all the talk, no one will truly know until Sunday. The game itself will reveal whether the Jets are actually putting the veteran signal-caller in a position to succeed.

For all the discussion, Sunday will be the real test. The Jets can’t afford to keep repeating the same mistakes that stunted his growth elsewhere, and Fields can’t afford to waste another opportunity to prove he belongs as a starter for the rest of the season.

Whether it’s through smarter play-calling, quicker decision-making, or simply leaning into what he does best, the time for results is now.