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Justin Fields reportedly agreed to a two-year, $40 million deal with the New York Jets. The deal contains includes $30 million guaranteed. It all but locks in Justin Fields as the Jets starter for most, if not all, of the 2025 season.
We have little clue as to how Tanner Engstrand is going to construct an offense in his first-year as an NFL offensive coordinator after flying the coop from Detroit. It’s not as if the Lions had a quarterback run game package where we can look for clues as to how Fields will be deployed. I do expect the Jets to lean on the ground game with Fields under center and include him as a rushing threat. New York has Breece Hall in the fold and got nice contributions from a pair of rookies in Braelon Allen and Isaiah Davis at running back last year. The Jets offensive line is sneakily improving with some young draft picks getting settled in late last year.
The combined efforts of that group could make a fearsome running game in New York, which sounds right up the alley of a defensive head coach in Aaron Glenn.
As a passer, Fields has his flaws and is one of the worst sack-eaters in the NFL. Unless we see a significant change in his game, those holes will keep him stuck as a bridge quarterback. Regardless, this reclamation project for the Jets makes sense as they transition out of the failed Aaron Rodgers era. It doesn’t cost them much and you can still squint and see a reasonable path to upside with Fields.
Fantasy fallout
Garrett Wilson is WR17 at the top of a chunky tier of WR2s right now in the very early industry consensus rankings. That sounds about right in terms of his ceiling with Fields as his quarterback and there may be some guys I'm willing to pass him up to draft in that range. That's why we have tiers.
At the same time, Wilson is an excellent player and Fields is a low-end starter. There have been plenty of times the fantasy community has disregarded talent in favor of overconfident projections in situations just like this. So, I don’t want to completely rule out a strong connection developing between these two former Ohio State products. Especially since the Jets don’t have much in the way of target competition. Nevertheless, my confidence is higher than Fields’ presence in New York boosts the run game and his own SuperFlex sleeper appeal — he's still a stretch in one QB leagues — than it is he is about to launch Wilson to the production ceiling his tape has long showed is within his reach.