{"id":110839,"date":"2025-06-07T09:21:14","date_gmt":"2025-06-07T09:21:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/110839\/"},"modified":"2025-06-07T09:21:14","modified_gmt":"2025-06-07T09:21:14","slug":"jets-justin-fields-agree-to-2-year-deal-why-the-qb-fits-with-their-new-look-offense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/110839\/","title":{"rendered":"Jets, Justin Fields agree to 2-year deal: Why the QB fits with their new-look offense"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Athletic has live coverage of NFL free agency.\u00a0Track all the latest moves here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The New York Jets have a new quarterback. Justin Fields and the team agreed to terms on a two-year deal worth $40 million including $30 million guaranteed, according to a league source.<\/p>\n

Fields was the No. 24 ranked player on The Athletic\u2019s top 150 free agent rankings<\/a> and the third-highest quarterback on the list \u2014 the Pittsburgh Steelers tried to sign him before free agency started, but Fields preferred to hit the market<\/a>. The No. 11 pick in the 2021 NFL Draft by the Bears, Fields spent the first three seasons of his career in Chicago. With the team set to select Caleb Williams with the No. 1 pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, the Bears traded Fields to the Pittsburgh Steelers last March. Now, Fields will replace Aaron Rodgers as the Jets<\/a>\u2019 starting quarterback.<\/p>\n

Fields stepped in for an injured Wilson at the beginning of the season and led the Steelers<\/a> to a 4-2 record before Wilson returned. Last season, Fields posted career highs in completion percentage (65.8) and quarterback rating (93.3) while throwing for 1,106 passing yards, five touchdowns and one interception. He added 289 rushing yards and five touchdowns. In four seasons, Fields has a record of 14-30 as a starting quarterback and has thrown for 7,780 yards, 45 touchdowns and 31 interceptions on a completion percentage of 61.1. The 26-year-old also has 2,509 rushing yards and 19 touchdowns on the ground.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s everything to know about the Jets first big free agent signing for GM Darren Mougey and coach Aaron Glenn.<\/p>\n

How he fits<\/p>\n

Based on the contract, it\u2019s fairly obvious that Fields will be the Jets\u2019 starting quarterback. It was believed that Tyrod Taylor would get a shot to compete for the starting job, but the Jets wouldn\u2019t have paid Fields that much if they didn\u2019t view him as their starter in 2025. He\u2019s the sort of quarterback the Jets haven\u2019t really had before \u2014 a legitimate dual-threat, even if he still could use some development as a passer.<\/p>\n

He showed some improvement with the Steelers last year but not enough to stave off Russell Wilson, and Pittsburgh ran an offense designed to minimize risk. Under first-year Jets offensive coordinator Tanner Engstrand, formerly a part of the Detroit Lions\u2019 staff, expect an offense built around Fields\u2019 skillset with a lot of RPOs, play-action and creativity to get him in space and take advantage of his athleticism \u2014 while also attempting to develop him as a passer. Fields also was beloved by both the Bears and Steelers locker rooms and is viewed as a leader by many who have played with him. At 26, he\u2019s also on the same timeline as some of the Jets\u2019 younger stars.<\/p>\n

2025 impact<\/p>\n

The Jets\u2019 ceiling feels higher with Fields than it would have with the other quarterback options available. The Jets were tied to Carson Wentz, Marcus Mariota and Kirk Cousins as fallback options; additionally, this is viewed as a weak NFL Draft class at the position.<\/p>\n

Fields has a high ceiling and his athleticism makes it likely that, week-to-week, there is going to be some excitement. There are also questions about how it\u2019s going to look when he\u2019s at his worst, and whether the Jets have the talent around him to overcome when he does struggle. But the potential is significant and he was the best option available for a Jets team that needed an injection of excitement after the disaster that was the Aaron Rodgers era<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fields almost certainly won\u2019t put up the passing numbers Rodgers did last season \u2014 3,897 yards, 28 touchdowns, 11 interceptions \u2014 but those numbers don\u2019t accurately portray how Rodgers played in 2024. The 41-year-old can\u2019t move like he used to and wasn\u2019t willing to take shots down the field most of the time. Neither of those things will be a problem with Fields, and the Jets\u2019 offensive line, returning four of five starters, should be better in 2025.<\/p>\n

The player impacted most by Fields\u2019 arrival is obvious: wide receiver Garrett Wilson, who played with Fields at Ohio State. In 2020 with Fields at QB for the Buckeyes, a freshman Wilson had 50 receptions for 729 yards and seven touchdowns. Wilson was openly frustrated over the last three years with the Jets\u2019 various iterations at quarterback, starting with Zach Wilson but also including Rodgers, who clashed with Wilson at times last season. Wilson will be the no-doubt No. 1 target in this offense and should have a big season.<\/p>\n

Fields\u2019 presence also bodes well for running back Breece Hall. Fields\u2019 ability to run will force defenses to account for him and should make life a little easier for Hall, whereas Rodgers was never a serious running threat.<\/p>\n

Cap update<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear how the Jets are structuring Fields\u2019 contract, but after re-signing linebacker Jamien Sherwood on Sunday the Jets had $47 million in cap space, and Fields\u2019 deal shouldn\u2019t eat into that too much. They still have enough space to make some more moves in free agency.<\/p>\n

Outlook<\/p>\n

The Jets won five games with Rodgers making 17 starts in 2024, which would have sounded impossible going into the season. So their floor is certainly finishing around that same record, but Fields \u2014 assuming the Jets adequately fill their other roster holes \u2014 has the ability to at least keep the Jets competing deeper into the schedule and being part of the playoff conversation later in the season. Though, considering Fields\u2019 struggles at times as a passer, it would be fair to say the floor for the Jets in 2025 is a record as bad or worse than it was last year with Rodgers.<\/p>\n

Either way, Fields is a fun player who is worth getting excited about, even if there\u2019s some risk involved.<\/p>\n

Required reading<\/p>\n

(Photo: Scott Taetsch \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Athletic has live coverage of NFL free agency.\u00a0Track all the latest moves here. The New York Jets…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":110840,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2051],"tags":[1999,7,226,1917,255,2321,2097,6,57],"class_list":{"0":"post-110839","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-jets","8":"tag-fantasy-football","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-jets","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-jets","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkjets","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114641350533340438","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}