The Jets have a new signal caller in 2025, and he’s trying to turn his career around.
Around this time every year I do a roster countdown with an individual article for each player. I have found that this approach frequently seems like a good idea when I start. Then training camp arrives, and suddenly there are a lot of other things to talk about.
With that in mind, I have decided to change the format this year. Instead of doing a season preview for each player, I am going to write a preview for each position group. We start today with the quarterbacks.
The Most Important Player
Justin Fields
Fields is a high Draft pick whose career is off to a very disappointing start. The fifth year pro is now on his third team and hasn’t come come to justifying his spot as the 11th overall pick in 2021. Still, there have been enough flashes of high end play for teams to believe his talent can be channeled in the right situation.
The Jets gave him a moderately priced contract. It is the type of deal that will turn into a bargain if Fields makes progress. Conversely, it will go down as an overpay if his performance doesn’t see a jump.
That might sound familiar. Former Jets general manager Joe Douglas gave out a lot of contracts like that to players with similar pedigrees. Unfortunately, most of them failed. Whatever flashes guys like Jarrad Davis, Mecole Hardman, and Javon Kinlaw displayed in their first few seasons proved to be mirages.
Every coaching staff and front office has players they believe they can get more from than other teams. To me, one of the biggest separators of the good from the bad is the ability to correctly identify players who underperformed elsewhere capable of doing better in a different circumstance.
Given that the first such project Aaron Glenn and Darren Mougey chose is at the quarterback position, the stakes could not be higher.
Anybody who has watched Fields’ first four years would likely acknowledge he is a work in progress as a passer. He misses too many reads and frequently lacks pocket presence. There have been some real flashes of quality play, however.
I’ll copy my own work from early in the offseason to prove that point.
I took a look at Fields’ career. He has posted a passer rating of 100 or better in 21.6% of the games where he has thrown at least 20 passes.
That number is meaningless without context. Should we be encouraged? Discouraged?
I decided to look to Sam Darnold’s career. Prior to 2024, Darnold had a 100 or better passer rating in 23.6% of the games where he had at least 20 attempts.
After a very rough first six years in the NFL, Darnold took a big step forward in 2024 starting for a Minnesota Vikings team that went 14-3. Darnold finished 10th in the MVP voting.
I wouldn’t expect Justin Fields to approach Darnold’s statistical success this season. I can all but promise you he won’t have 13 games with a passer rating over 100.
Darnold was in a much better situation than Fields will be. He had one of the three best wide receivers in the league, a quality second option, a good receiving tight end, and one of the best play designers in the league running his offense. By contrast, Fields will have a top 10-20 receiver in Garrett Wilson (which is NOT a knock when you think about how much wide receiver talent currently is in the league), no viable number two receiver, a rookie tight end, and a first time play caller. Fields could play at the same level as Darnold and still have a far less impressive statistical output. Darnold himself is likely to see his statistics regress quite a bit in a less favorable situation in Seattle.
Success for Fields isn’t about garnering MVP consideration. (Heck, I would say the fact Darnold got three MVP votes a year ago speaks to how unsophisticated some voters still are at breaking down the causes and effects of success.)
There is, however, clearly a level of quarterback play the Jets need. Fields has not played consistently at that level to date, but he has shown an ability to occasionally reach it. The Jets need those flashes to turn into regular occurrences. This will require multiple things. First, it will require Fields to improve. This combines his own work with good instruction from his coaches. It also will require the coaches to find concepts Fields is comfortable with and making them staples of the offense. It won’t hurt to make extensive use of Fields’ ability as a runner. He is one of the handful of quarterbacks in the league who is capable of producing splash plays on the ground, which expands the playbook.
I view Fields as a potential stabilizer at quarterback for the Jets. There’s only so much progress you can reasonably expect a player to make. It’s not a terribly far distance from where Fields is now to see him become a competent placeholder quarterback. Becoming the team’s long-term starter is a much bigger ask.
The Jets don’t really need Fields to be the guy for the next ten years, though. What they really need is someone who can play effectively enough to win some games in the short run and prevent the team from feeling like it desperately needs a quarterback entering the 2026 NFL Draft. There are a lot of reasons teams pick the wrong quarterback in the Draft, and desperation is among them. Quality play from Fields can leave the Jets feeling like they can wait for the right prospect, whenever he comes along.
That seems to be the plan at least. How well it goes will tell us quite a bit about the competence of the Aaron Glenn/Darren Mougey pair.
The Veteran Backup
Tyrod Taylor
In 2024 the Jets gave Taylor a contract that virtually guaranteed he would be on the team for two years. Was this really necessary to secure the services of a player like Tyrod Taylor? I have my doubts. Under Woody Johnson, the Jets frequently make moves basic on optics. In the shadow of a 2023 season that went down the drain in part because the team did not adequately address the backup quarterback role, it sure seemed to me that guaranteeing that second year for Taylor was more about showing the world that they were taking backup quarterback seriously than it was about the merits.
Either way, Taylor is back as the number two quarterback. It isn’t hard to guess what you will get from him. He’s a veteran who will know where the ball needs to go on the first read. Even at 36 years old, he probably still has enough juice in his legs to evade pass rushers and break off an occasional nice gain on a scramble. He’ll also protect the football. You won’t get much more.
I would guess Taylor could get you through a game or two at this point. Anything more might be too much to ask. In his prime, Tyrod topped out as a competent game manager. The last time he held down full-time starting job was eight years ago. He’s firmly in the backup stage of his career. We know what he can do and can’t do.
The Number Three Quarterback Competitors
Brady Cook
Adrian Martinez
The retirement of Jordan Travis creates an opening for one of two undrafted players to snag a roster spot. Now that the NFL allows teams to activate a extra player on gameday as the emergency quarterback, it makes sense to roster three signal callers.
You aren’t expecting much from your number three quarterback. Essentially, you want somebody capable of executing a handful of plays. Few third string quarterbacks will have sustained success, but there is still a big difference between having an actual quarterback taking snaps and putting a position player under center.
The decision on whether Cook or Martinez earns the spot could come down to what the Jets value in the number three quarterback role. Martinez’s ability as a runner would give the Jets an obvious set of plays he could likely execute successfully even if it probably wouldn’t take defenses long to catch on. Cook likely has more upside as a developmental passer. Given that the current Jets regime is more focused on the long term than the short term, that might tip the scales to Cook although its admittedly speculative.