Justin Fields’ disaster of a season with the Jets took another turn for the worse as the quarterback was ruled out for Sunday’s game against Miami with knee soreness.
Aaron Glenn made the announcement before Friday’s practice in advance of Sunday’s game against the Dolphins at MetLife Stadium.
The coach added that rookie Brady Cook will serve as the backup to Tyrod Taylor, and they would see how Fields’ knee progresses to determine his status going forward.
But with just five games remaining on the schedule, there’s a decent chance Fields has played his last game for the Jets.
And he could soon end up on the growing list of quarterbacks who have come to the Jets and flopped before leaving town — a list that includes Aaron Rodgers, Zach Wilson and Sam Darnold in just the past six seasons.
Jets quarterback Justin Fields (7) runs at practice in Florham Park. Bill Kostroun/New York Post
Having already lost his starting job, Glenn said Fields’ knee injury “popped up in practice” Wednesday.
It limited Fields on Thursday, and he was held out Friday.
Regardless of how Fields might recover from the knee soreness, it’s hard to see how he can make anything out of what’s been a failure in his first season with the Jets.
Signed after a bumpy and disappointing year with the Steelers after his time with the Bears came to an end, Fields was brought in to bring some life to the Jets offense under Glenn in his first year in Florham Park.
Instead, it has been a mess, and while he showed some solid play in a handful of games, the 11th-overall pick in 2021 seems to be on his way out of a third franchise.
After opening the season as the starter — and starting the first nine games of the season — Fields hasn’t played since Nov. 13 against the Patriots, having been benched in favor of Taylor.
The Jets went just 2-7 in those games after signing Fields to a two-year, $40 million deal, with $30 million guaranteed, in the offseason.
He’s guaranteed $10 million for next year and said after being benched he wants to be a starter again somewhere.
Though Taylor figures to run the offense for most of the rest of this lost season, Glenn said he’s liked what he’s seen from Cook, who has yet to appear in an NFL game.
Cook, 24, was signed by the Jets as an undrafted free agent coming out of Missouri in May.
He was signed to the practice squad in August and has been active against Cincinnati and Tampa Bay due to injuries to Fields and Taylor.
“The one thing that we do quite a bit in practice is we have a number of competition periods, and you see exactly how he goes about his business when his time comes up to really be in that situation to compete. He looks forward to it,” Glenn said of Cook. “He’s going to be a quarterback in this league. I do know that. I can’t tell you when, but he’ll be a quarterback in this league.”
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And with the Jets, anything is possible when it comes to quarterback turmoil.
They have the draft capital to get a top pick in the draft, so regardless of how this season ends, they will have someone else under center in 2026 after another unsuccessful attempt at landing a franchise quarterback.