The Jets officially shut down quarterback Justin Fields on Tuesday, placing him on season-ending injured reserve.
The move ends Fields’ first, and likely last, season with the Jets.
Fields has not played since Nov. 13 against the Patriots. He was benched in favor of Tyrod Taylor the following week. Fields hurt his knee in practice two weeks later.
He has been inactive for the last three Jets games despite practicing the last two weeks. The Jets are now starting rookie Brady Cook at quarterback.
“We tried to see how we could get this thing to work,” Jets coach Aaron Glenn said. “But it wasn’t getting as better as we would like it. We wanted to make sure we get a focus on that to get him better.”
The Jets signed Fields to a two-year, $40 million contract in March with $30 million in guaranteed money.
They named him the starting quarterback immediately, but it has not worked out.
The Jets went 2-7 in games that Fields started. He missed one game early in the season with a concussion. Fields completed 62.7 percent of his passes for 1,259 yards. He threw for seven touchdowns and one interception. He was sacked 27 times.
In addition, Fields ran 71 times for 383 yards and four touchdowns.
Fields said last week that he was trying to return this season but that doctors had found an issue with his knee. Glenn said he was not sure if Fields would need surgery.
“This is for any player that doesn’t have the season that we would like for them to have,” Glenn said. “It’s always disappointing. … any player that we have high hopes for and the season doesn’t go the way we wanted it to go, we’re always disappointed in that.”
This likely is the end of Fields’ time with the Jets. He is under contract for next year, but the Jets are expected to move on from him. Fields carries a $23 million cap number for next year, and the Jets will get very little relief from that by cutting him.
They will save $1 million against the cap and he will carry a $22 million dead-money hit.
If they designate him as a post-June 1 cut, that number goes down to $13 million for 2026 and $9 million in 2027.
Fields, a 2021 first-round pick of by the Bears, was asked last week about his disappointment in how the season went.
“It was definitely not what we planned it out to be,” Fields said. “But it’s life. Nothing works out how you want it to, but everything happens for a reason. I’ll just keep getting better as a quarterback — evolving my game and changing my game.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
