Justin Fields’ reign as the New York Jets franchise quarterback lasted a little more than half a season.
Gang Green is making a change at quarterback, with head coach Aaron Glenn opting for veteran backup Tyrod Taylor for their Week 12 matchup against the Baltimore Ravens, as first reported by Dianna Russini of The Athletic.
Fields, 26, signed a two-year deal to join the Jets after failing to latch on with the Chicago Bears and Pittsburgh Steelers, seen as a legitimate option for Glenn to build on in his first year as head coach, given his dual-threat capabilities.
What transpired over his first nine games — he missed one due to a concussion — was the NFL’s worst passing offense by far. The 2-8 Jets rank last in passing yards per game (139.9), 26th in passing touchdowns (11), and 24th in completion percentage (62.5)
Fields was at the forefront of it all, completing 62.7% of his passes for 1,259 yards, seven passing touchdowns, and one interception. He passed for fewer than 120 yards in four of his last five games, including Thursday night’s 27-14 loss to the New England Patriots, in which he completed 15 of 26 passes for 116 yards and a touchdown.
Pressure came from owner Woody Johnson to bench Fields on Oct. 21 after bashing the quarterback for his play. Glenn might have obliged ahead of that Week 8 matchup against the Cincinnati Bengals, but Taylor was unavailable due to a knee injury. Fields followed it up with one of his strongest performances of the season, going 21-of-32 for 244 yards and a score.
Still, Glenn remained noncommittal when asked about his quarterback situation, and it reached a tipping point following Thursday night’s poor performance.
“We got to get better at passing the ball,” Glenn said on Friday. “We got to get a lot better in the passing game. Listen, I don’t think that’s any surprise to anybody. But when you look at that game, again, I thought he did some good things as far as getting the ball out to these guys, but I thought he did some things he has to improve, because there were guys that we missed, and he would tell you that. That’s no surprise. But man, there were some passes in that game, I thought that we had chances to make some big plays on, and we didn’t finish those.”
Taylor started one game this season for the Jets in Week 3 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He completed 26 of 36 passes for 197 yards, two touchdowns, one interception, and nearly steered them to an improbable comeback win had the defense not sagged at the death.
