Justin Fields' promising debut a silver lining from Jets' Week 1 loss
Justin Fields of the Jets throws a pass during the first quarter against the Pittsburgh Steelers at MetLife Stadium on Sunday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Aaron Rodgers’ four touchdown passes in his MetLife Stadium return garnered plenty of attention, but the Jets’ current quarterback provided a reason for optimism this season.
Justin Fields was impressive in his Jets debut, a crushing 34-32 loss to Rodgers and the Steelers on Sunday. Fields played with poise, was efficient passing and ran the football well. He threw for one touchdown, kept plays alive with his legs and ran for two scores.
“That’s who he is,” Aaron Glenn said during a Monday Zoom call with reporters. “I think each one of you guys were dogging him all during preseason about what he can’t do, and I think he’s just showed what he can do. And we know that he’s not done with his progression as far as getting better.”
Fields’ performance in training camp and the preseason led to questions about how effective he would be. He threw mostly checkdowns or short passes underneath, but he was getting to know his new teammates and the system.
He looked confident and comfortable running the offense Sunday and did more than enough for the Jets to win, but they squandered a 26-17 fourth-quarter lead.
Kick returner Xavier Gipson’s fumble and some costly penalties loomed large in the loss. Pittsburgh won on Chris Boswell’s career-best 60-yard field goal with 1:03 left.
The mistakes and discipline issues upset Glenn, but after rewatching the game, he said he was “disappointed, but highly, highly encouraged on things that I saw.” Fields was one of the reasons. Glenn described him as “outstanding.”
Fields completed 16 of 22 passes for 218 yards and no interceptions. He added 48 yards rushing, including a 1-yard touchdown on a bootleg after faking a handoff to Breece Hall on fourth down to give the Jets a 32-31 lead with 7:01 left.
Fields joined Mark Sanchez and Josh McCown as the only Jets quarterbacks to throw a touchdown pass and rush for two scores in the same game.
“I just want our quarterback to be efficient, and he went out and he did that,” Glenn said. “The way that he runs the read-option game and he makes a decision on keeping the ball, I thought he was outstanding on that. Some of these throws that he got out of the pocket, and he set himself up, got his shoulders square and delivered the ball, I thought it was outstanding. He’s going to continue to improve on those things.”
The Jets gave Fields a two-year, $40 million contract in free agency, believing he was the right quarterback to lead new coordinator Tanner Eng-strand’s system.
He made a good first impression, leading the Jets on four straight scoring drives to start the game, including a 33-yard touchdown pass to Garrett Wilson, his old Ohio State teammate.
“That boy’s a dawg,” Wilson said. “That’s the man I know. He comes out there and puts everything on the field every time, every play. He don’t give up on any play, he don’t give up on anything. I know stuff like that is inspiring for the dudes on the field with him and probably the dudes watching.”
Engstrand also made a very good first impression in his debut as an NFL offensive coordinator. The Jets had 394 yards of offense, 182 of them on the ground — their most rushing yards since the final game of the 2023 season. The offensive line, despite losing Alijah Vera-Tucker for the season last week with a torn triceps, created holes and protected Fields. He was sacked only once.
Glenn acknowledged there are things to clean up. He expressed confidence in cornerback Brandon Stephens, who gave up a touchdown and was flagged for pass interference on Pittsburgh’s final drive.
The Jets also had two unnecessary-roughness penalties. One was a drive-killer on left guard John Simpson. The other, on linebacker Quincy Williams, helped a Steelers touchdown drive.
Glenn was pleased that the Jets had only one false-start penalty after leading the league in that category last season, but eliminating personal fouls is a priority.
“We have to make sure that we can’t allow those things to happen,” he said, “because they will force you to lose games.”
Two-minute drill
Glenn said wide receiver Allen Lazard was inactive because after he missed two weeks with a shoulder injury, the Jets wanted to “make sure that he was up to speed on everything that we were doing. We’ll see how that goes this week.” . . . WR Tyler Johnson was signed to the active roster. There was a spot open after Vera-Tucker was placed on IR.
Al Iannazzone covers the Jets for Newsday after spending nearly two decades on the NBA beat with Knicks and Nets.
