Jets QB Justin Fields must pick up pace, and take some chances

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — Here’s how topsy-turvy things have gotten with the Jets: The biggest red flag in Justin Fields’ statistical line so far this season is that he has thrown zero interceptions. That may seem like the ideal number for any quarterback to want, but in this case it is more representative of a player who is afraid to take chances, unwilling to give his teammates an opportunity to make plays, and too risk-averse to trust his own abilities in tight situations.

It’s a mindset that has come from having the idea that turnovers are bad hammered into his helmet for most of his career. It’s an overcorrection, one might say, to his first two seasons in Chicago when he threw a combined 21 of them in 27 games and then another nine in 13 games in his third season before he was shipped off to Pittsburgh.

But now, as he is on the verge of becoming perhaps the first quarterback in football history to be benched for not throwing enough picks (or at least not throwing enough gutsy yet necessary-to-succeed passes that can sometimes lead to them) Fields seems to understand that he is being far too cautious.

“I feel like I’ve been a little bit too conservative,” Fields said on Wednesday. “I can probably be a little more aggressive. I’ve always been big on ball security and not putting the ball in jeopardy but it comes to a point where you have to find that healthy balance between trying to maybe fit it in smaller windows and just letting it rip.”

He also knows that at this point he has nothing to lose. The Jets are 0-6. He is coming off his worst game with the Jets. And being safe with the football in his hands didn’t help him much last year with the Steelers. Through six games there he had five passing touchdowns, five rushing touchdowns, four wins and just one interception . . . and he was replaced by Russell Wilson. Even as Wilson threw five interceptions in the 11 games he started, a clip nearly three greater per game that Fields was averaging, Fields remained on the bench for the rest of his tenure with the Steelers.

So it’s time to begin gambling a bit more.

To be honest it’s past that time, but Fields is just arriving there now, and maybe that’s enough to ask for this week.

“The ball is very important to us as an offense, but at the same time some of those risks you take can turn into explosive plays,” he said. “Throwing no interceptions is a great thing but I also think taking some shots down the field and trying to stretch the field a little bit is important for us as an offense. . . .  Looking at myself this past game and really over the season, I told myself I can be a little more aggressive. This Sunday I’m probably going to be a little more aggressive but not reckless at the same time. Just being smart.”

In that regard he has his head coach’s blessing. Aaron Glenn did say after Sunday’s game when it came to Fields holding the ball too long: “Man, you just have to give your guys a chance.” On Wednesday, he reiterated the idea.

“I still believe that and I think that's for any quarterback, especially when you have man coverage to give a guy a chance,” he said. “But I do know if something bad happens, you guys are going to be [complaining] about that, about him. So the thing is he's just got to go out there and play quarterback and do the best that he can. I don't come off that at all. When you're in man coverage, you've got to give the guys a chance to go catch the ball."

Fields may be picking the wrong game for the epiphany. He will likely be without his best receiving target as Garrett Wilson deals with a knee injury (Glenn insisted no decision has been made on Wilson’s availability despite reports he will miss several weeks). Then again, he is going up against a Panthers defense that has four interceptions but none since Week 3, has allowed eight passing touchdowns in the three games since then, and ranks 17th in the league in passing yards allowed this season (213.8 per game).

Even when he was tearing it up at Ohio State and throwing 63 touchdowns over two seasons there, he mixed in nine interceptions. Those turnovers aren’t ideal and too many of them can kill drives and kill seasons, but they are also a sign of confidence from a quarterback. Joe Namath, the swaggiest quarterback in franchise history, threw more of them than touchdown passes. Brett Favre holds the career record for most picks in a career with 336 (an honor offset by his 508 touchdown passes that rank fifth all-time). Seven of the 10 quarterbacks with the most interceptions in NFL history are in the Hall of Fame, a list that also includes Dan Marino, Peyton Manning and Johnny Unitas.

“Everybody is going to throw picks,” Fields said. “That’s just a part of playing quarterback.”

Well, it hasn’t been for him. Not for the past season and a half anyway.

And where has this clean QB living gotten Fields?

Exactly.

By Tom Rock

tom.rock@newsday.com@TomRock_Newsday

Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.