New York Jets quarterback Justin Fields (7) stretches before an NFL Week 10 game between the New York Jets and the Cleveland Browns at MetLife Stadium on Sunday, Nov. 9, 2025.

Justin Fields finally ran out of chances to turn things around with the New York Jets. Now, it's unclear where the next opportunity to reshape his own fortunes will come from.

On Monday, the Jets revealed they are benching their starter in favor of veteran backup Tyrod Taylor. The move comes after several weeks of coach Aaron Glenn refusing to reveal his plans behind center amid mounting questions regarding Fields' efficacy in leading a passing attack that would come to rank as the league's worst (139.9 yards per game).

The benching seems to wrap up yet another disappointing chapter for the 2021 NFL Draft's No. 11 overall pick, who is with his third team in three years and could be heading elsewhere this offseason. With Daniel Jones enjoying a career renaissance with the Indianapolis Colts this season while Baker Mayfield and Sam Darnold establish themselves as fringe MVP candidates, there's a prevailing sense that a reinvention could be around the corner for any former first-round quarterback. But while a 26-year-old with scintillating running ability will naturally spark intrigue – and he should have a chance to latch on elsewhere – Fields currently looks like a long shot to enjoy the same kind of reversal in trajectory that some of his other peers have pulled off.

Here's how things are shaping up for Fields in the near future:

Justin Fields' stats reveal a fundamentally flawed QB

When the Jets brought aboard Fields last March, the signal-caller figured to be exactly the sort of quiet leader the new regime was searching for to move past the ill-fated Aaron Rodgers era. Instead, the offense's inability to generate any consistent movement through the air created a cacophony too loud to ignore.

In New York, Fields didn't fail in the same manner that many young quarterbacks do by becoming a turnover machine to compensate for his surroundings. On the contrary: He threw just one interception, matching his previous year's total with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

But his trigger-shy tendencies – perhaps developed after a three-year run with the Chicago Bears in which he threw for 30 interceptions – came at a clear cost. Gang Green was unable to get anything going via the air in his nine starts, with Fields posting less than 120 passing yards in four of the last five contests.

His deep pass percentage of 6.9%, according to Next Gen Stats, tied for the fourth-lowest of any quarterback. The limitations in the downfield passing game severely inhibited the Jets' ability to evaluate and develop the rest of the offense, particularly wide receivers Adonai Mitchell and John Metchie III, who both arrived ahead of the trade deadline.

Some of that style could be a product of a Jets offense that didn't afford him much of a margin for error with which to operate. But a deeper disconnect appeared to be compounding the team's problems rather than addressing them.

Fields was not playing the part of a quick-processing distributor attacking the underneath areas for immediate opportunities to rack up yards after the catch. Instead, his 2.93-second time to throw average is tied for sixth among all quarterbacks, according to Next Gen Stats, putting him in the company of passers who are much more eager to go big-play hunting.

The result: He invited pressure at a league-worst rate (46.5%) while still taking 22 sacks, which repeatedly put the Jets offense in massive holes from which it could not emerge. And there was no discernible payoff, with New York having the fewest pass plays of 20-plus yards (18) of any team so far this season.

"I feel like I've been a little bit too conservative in a sense," Fields said in mid-October after taking nine sacks in a London loss to the Denver Broncos, who held the Jets to -10 net passing yards on the day. "Probably just (need to) be a little bit more aggressive. I've always just been big on ball security and not putting the ball in jeopardy, but it comes to a point where you just have to find that healthy balance between trying to maybe fit it in smaller windows and just letting it rip."

The vision, however, never took hold. Even as the Jets scored consecutive wins after an 0-7 start, Fields would average more than 7 air yards per attempt in just one of his last four games. The lone outlier would come in the 27-14 "Thursday Night Football" flop against the New England Patriots, at which point Glenn apparently determined that he had seen enough.

Fields is hardly responsible for the entirety of the Jets' vast offensive ineptitude, and perhaps escaping the setting will allow him to develop as a passer after five years of stasis. But Fields isn't merely looking to become a second-chance success story. In all likelihood, he'll be on his fourth stop next year, hoping that it's more conducive to success than any of his previous short-term stays.

Darnold and Mayfield are fun sources of hope after their transient sinuous journeys led to breakouts with their fourth teams. But both passers offered more upside than Fields, and the two are clearly exceptions to a rule that has led other quarterbacks who faltered – including 2021 draft classmates Zach Wilson and Trey Lance, among others – to be relegated to backup roles with no clear path back to glory.

In the short term, it sure looks like that's all that awaits Fields.

What's next for Justin Fields? Evaluating 2026 options for QB

Fields is under contract with the Jets through next year, having secured $10 million in guaranteed money for 2026.

While releasing him as a pre-June 1 cut would only yield $1 million in cap savings, a clean break might still be favorable for both parties given where the coaching staff stands now, with a new starter almost assure to arrive via next year's draft or free agency. And while parting ways would entail a $22 million dead cap hit, that's manageable for a team currently projected to have nearly $100 million in space in 2026, according to Over The Cap, with almost no significant obligations beyond next year.

If Fields hits the open market, he almost assuredly would be left to scrounge for a backup role. Searching for another bridge starter gig might be the optimal route, and a few are typically available each year with the supply of young quarterbacks never measuring up to the league-wide demand. But Fields likely has exhausted his opportunities on that front given how things went with the Jets.

That might leave him in somewhat of a pinch whenever he tries to find the right fit. The best use of his talents to date has required a heavy use of designed runs, as his 102 yards on such plays through 10 weeks ranked second among all quarterbacks. But leveraging that skill set will be tricky for any team that doesn't already have that facet built into the offense. For the Jets, his contributions in the ground game weren't enough to offset the lack of production in his primary responsibility. Still, he could spark some intrigue as a backstop given that he never wavered in taking accountability amid difficult circumstances, including owner Woody Johnson taking unprompted shots at him for the organization's winless start.

"Whatever I have to do to get this team as successful as can be and for us to reach our highest potential, I'm willing to do whatever," Fields said last Thursday. "So if that's me running the ball, that's what it is."

Might settling in as the Baltimore Ravens' backup be in the cards? Cooper Rush couldn't hack it as Lamar Jackson's fill-in, though the team could opt to bring back Tyler Huntley. The Los Angeles Chargers also could be a consideration if Lance doesn't re-sign as QB2, as offensive coordinator Greg Roman is more than comfortable deploying a mobile quarterback. And the Minnesota Vikings might not be schematically aligned with what Fields can provide, but he could provide insurance amid J.J. McCarthy's rocky introduction to the league.

Wherever he heads, Fields clearly would stand to benefit from learning under someone like San Francisco 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan, who helped reboot Darnold and is now doing the same for Mac Jones. Yet with this season's struggles still fresh, it might be difficult for any accomplished mentor to look past Fields' recent track record to the promise he showed at Ohio State.

"I know I definitely have some untapped potential," Fields said in March when he signed with the Jets. "I'm hoping to get there this year and I'm hoping to put it on display for everybody to see."

Soon, Fields will again have to convince teams that they should focus on what they haven't seen from him instead of what they have.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Can Justin Fields be the next NFL QB revival success story? Don't count on it | Opinion

Reporting by Michael Middlehurst-Schwartz, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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