The New York Jets primarily bought a lottery ticket at quarterback once they signed Justin Fields to a two-year, $40M cope with $30M assured early within the new league yr in March.
On Thursday, first-year Jets offensive coordinator Tanner Engstrand mentioned how Fields has carried out together with his new membership throughout spring exercises.
“He is clearly a bodily proficient participant,” Engstrand stated about Fields, ESPN’s Rich Cimini of shared. “All people talks concerning the working — effectively, the man’s acquired an arm, too, and he does an incredible job with that. Mentally, he is phenomenal. He is been completely phenomenal up to now, and we count on extra out of that. There’s simply plenty of issues that you are able to do with that kind of participant that is going to place stress on a protection and make that defensive coordinator keep up late at evening as we get going into this factor.”
The Chicago Bears made Fields a first-round draft decide within the spring of 2021 however then traded him to the Pittsburgh Steelers in March 2024. Final summer time, the Steelers worked to change Fields’ throwing stance and footwork after he took more sacks (135) and committed more fumbles (38) than some other quarterback over the earlier three seasons.
Fields later went 4-2 as Pittsburgh’s starter whereas veteran Russell Wilson recovered from a lingering calf damage. Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin however turned to a wholesome Wilson in Week 7, and Fields embraced a recent begin with the Jets this offseason.
Fields has a profession file of 14-30 as an NFL starter, and the notion exists that he is extra of a runner than a passer. On Thursday, Engstrand prompt that he believes Fields hasn’t but reached his ceiling by way of enjoying the game’s most necessary place.
“It’s simply progress,” Engstrand added about Fields, per Antwan Staley of the New York Each day Information. “Simply going via his profession, simply persevering with to stack expertise together with it and finally finally ends up successful 4 video games out of six. You simply see a number of the issues which might be beginning to develop in his sport, and then you definately take a look at that and also you go, ‘That’s fairly good, we will do some issues with that.'”
The Jets can escape Fields’ contract as quickly as subsequent offseason and, thus, could start
backup Tyrod Taylor at any level if the 26-year-old performs poorly this fall. That stated, the Jets may have greater than a short lived repair for the quarterback downside that has plagued the franchise for over a decade if Engstrand and Co. can get the very best out of Fields over the subsequent handful of months.
