New York Jets head coach Aaron Glenn simply said, “We will have a quarterback on Sunday. I will tell you that,” when asked who will start on Sunday afternoon in Cincinnati against the Bengals.
We will have to wait until gameday to see if it will be Justin Fields or Tyrod Taylor.
“I wouldn’t want to give them a competitive advantage when I have that opportunity,” he continued.
The Jets are in the throes of a quarterback controversy after Fields was benched at halftime in Sunday’s 13-6 loss to the Carolina Panthers after completing six of 12 passes for 46 yards — this after he went 9-for-17 with 45 yards in a 13-11 Week 6 loss to the Denver Broncos in London.
Taylor, the veteran backup, did not make much of a difference in the loss, but team owner Woody Johnson ramped up the pressure to move on to him from Fields on Tuesday after he bashed his starting quarterback.
“It’s hard when you have a quarterback with a rating that we’ve got,” Johnson said. “He has the ability, but something is just not jiving. But if you look at any head coach with a quarterback like that, you’re going to see similar results across the league…
“If we could just complete a pass, it would look good. You have to convince them that you can do something.”
Even with Johnson’s comments, the decision is not so cut-and-dry. Taylor is dealing with a pre-existing knee issue that has him listed as day-to-day, but Glenn expressed confidence that he should be ready for Sunday.
Regardless, the decision of who starts on Sunday will be entirely Glenn’s, at least that is what he’s transmitting.
“[Woody] trusts me to make that decision,” Glenn said. “That comment was actually said by a number of guys, including our quarterback, as far as the efficiency of how we play. We’re not gonna fight that. We understand that. We have to be better. I don’t think there’s anywhere in that comment where he said he doesn’t like Justin… Overall, we’re on the same page when it comes to that.”
