The Jets had taken the rookie route during most of their time between Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers, deviating only during the Ryan Fitzpatrick–Josh McCown years ahead of the Sam Darnold pick. Now, they have turned to back-to-back veterans, with Justin Fields succeeding Rodgers.
As Rodgers has bounced back in Pittsburgh, Fields is floundering in New York. The Jets pried Fields from a Steelers team interested in re-signing him, handing out a two-year deal worth $40MM ($30MM guaranteed at signing). Outfitting the shaky passer with a top-heavy pass-catching corps, the Jets have received poor play. Woody Johnson is among those concerned about the quarterback.
“It looks like (Aaron Glenn) is turning around part of it,” Johnson said (via the New York Post’s Ryan Dunleavy). “It’s hard when you have a quarterback with the rating that we’ve got. He has the ability, but something is not jiving. If you look at any head coach with a quarterback like that, you are going to similar results across the league. You have to play consistently at that position and that’s what we’re going to try to do.
“… If we could just complete a pass, it would look good. You have to convince them that you can do something, otherwise it’s hard to have a game that you can win.”
No stranger to throwing his weight around, Johnson endorsing Glenn is notable. The recent firings of Urban Meyer, Nathaniel Hackett and Frank Reich during their first seasons shows teams have been willing to cut the cord early if an operation skids far off track. A GM informed the Washington Post’s Jason La Canfora he could see Johnson making another impulsive move and firing Glenn during or after his first season in charge. Johnson, however, called Glenn “the real deal” when speaking to media (via ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler) today.
A former standout Jets cornerback who became a hot coaching commodity this offseason, Glenn has steered the team to an 0-7 mark. Although the Lions were on a similar path to open the 2021 season — Glenn’s first year as Detroit’s DC — that team did not have the defensive talent the current Jets squad does. Despite working with Sauce Gardner, Quinnen Williams, Quincy Williams, Will McDonald and the recently re-signed Jamien Sherwood, Glenn has the Jets’ defense sitting 26th in scoring and 27th in EPA per play. While New York does sit 16th in yardage (an improvement over last season’s 20th-place ranking), the team has disappointed in just about every facet this year.
Glenn will be given more time to turn this around, but he will need to make a quarterback decision after benching Fields in Week 7 and not committing to starting him in Week 8. Fields sits 31st in QBR; among current starters, only Cam Ward is worse. Never viewed as a particularly accurate passer, Fields had been tabbed to pilot an offense featuring little in terms of aerial weaponry outside of Garrett Wilson. The recently extended wideout is now injured, and the team predictably sputtered without its top weapon.
Glenn benched Fields a week after he took nine sacks and threw for just 45 yards in a loss to the Broncos, and the demotion — one the HC dismissed after the London loss — appears close to being a long-term plan. The first-year HC is moving toward Tyrod Taylor as the team’s Week 8 starter, ESPN’s Rich Cimini reports.
Taylor has only been given starts due to injuries over the past four seasons. Although he opened the 2018, ’20 and ’21 campaigns as a starter (in Cleveland, Los Angeles and Houston), he sat behind the likes of Daniel Jones, Tommy DeVito (for a stretch in 2023) and Rodgers since. The 15th-year QB is in the second season of a two-year, $12MM deal — one the Jets handed out after they did not add a veteran to backstop Rodgers in 2023.
This would move Taylor’s start count to 60. The former three-year Bills starter has plenty of experience filling in, but a benching of this sort would be much more relevant for Fields, who had commanded considerable interest as a free agent. The Steelers preferred he and Matthew Stafford to Rodgers, but after they parked Fields near midseason (as Russell Wilson recovered from a calf injury), the 2021 first-rounder became more open to looking elsewhere. He found a taker in the Jets, but the results have proven wildly disappointing.
Whether this will be a short-term reset or the Jets admitting a mistake early, Johnson saying (via Cimini) the QB call is “completely up to the coach” will apply some heat on Glenn. For now, Glenn is in good standing. But at 0-7, the rookie HC will need to show progress soon to avoid one-and-done rumors. It appears the coach is showing more faith in Taylor to help create that progress. By 2026, however, rumors figure to connect the Jets to an aggressive pursuit of another rookie option under center.
Cannot stress enough how little I ever want to hear what Woody Johnson thinks. After his nonsense last year, he should be striving to be forgotten by fans as much as possible.
There are bunch of teams across professional American sports that suffer for so long because of the ownership and their decisions. I know they’re essentially private businesses (?) but it feels like fans should have some way of influencing an ownership change over time. I know that’s not going to happen, but if we have to wait until a Donald Sterling situation happens, that’s too long.
….understanding that “just don’t go to the games or buy merch” is not a viable solution, although the Oakland A’s fans did make a statement last year.
To your point, the Knicks suffered for almost two decades because Dolan was too hands on. He took a step back when they hired Leon Rose and wouldn’t you know, they’re a perennial playoff team. He did dip his toes back in with the firing of Thibs, though, so we’ll see how that plays out.
Lol the monkeys don’t get to run the circus. Fans deserve NO influence in teams whatsoever lol. If you don’t like what a team is doing over 20+ years follow a different one. There’s no laws to being a fan.
“Lol the monkeys don’t get to run the circus. Fans deserve NO influence in teams whatsoever lol.”
They’re literally the ones paying for the product. They deserve plenty of influence and they actually have it. They can just stop paying for something. What you’re saying is like saying that consumers deserve no influence over the products they buy. They not only deserve it but they have it.
People pay for McDonalds, do they choose the items on the menu? Customers buy Nike do they choose the color waves? Patterns? Lol. Consumers have a choice, it’s called a different franchise to watch. Choose a new sport for hecks sake. You get NO say.
lol he mentioned ratings again
This man is a certifiable idiot.
Lmao
((“We’re all trying to find the guy who did this” banana guy dot gif))
Great plan at QB. Rodgers may be old but Glenn telling him he’d rather have Justin Fields with a straight face is all you need to know. He should be one and done as head coach
Rodgers had a good year with the Jets last year, they gave up on him this year because they’re idiots and Johnson is the NFL’s version of LA Angels Arte Moreno. He didn’t bounce back he just went to a competent team with a competent coach and ownership
Woody Johnson is the only thing Karma gets right.
Fun fact: The Jets started 0-11 in 2020, 0-8 in 1996 and 0-5 1980. All those losing streaks ended on the road against NFC opponents. If the trend continues they should end a 14 game losing streak in New Orleans on Dec 21 🙂
Oh Woody, just go back to given pleasure to your dementia patient buddy Trump and stay out of football.
Waaa, no kings! Waaa….
You get what you pay for. This is who Justin Fields has always been, yet people still think he can be a starter in this league.
Two things can be true: Woody is a terrible owner and Justin Fields should not be a starting quarterback. I don’t think Woody should call out his players directly to the media. You keep those things in house.
He could have just said, “We are making a change at QB and see if we can get something going.”
All the other stuff about Fields wasn’t needed. Woody is already a jerk. Why perpetuate that?