Why it’s critical for the Jets’ future that Justin Fields alters play style

Aaron Glenn refused to name the New York Jets’ starting quarterback for their Week 10 game against the Cleveland Browns. In all likelihood, though, Justin Fields will retain the job after playing well in his most recent outing, leading the Jets to their first win of the season. Fields will be captaining a Jets team that has been completely overhauled since it last took the field in Cincinnati. Since their comeback win, the Jets have waved goodbye to three core defensive players, replacing them with a plethora of future draft picks and three young players with high draft pedigrees. Among those incoming players are two 25-and-under wide receivers with second-round pedigrees: John Metchie and Adonai Mitchell. In the wake of New York’s recent trades, the Jets need Fields to overhaul his play style just as much as the team overhauled its roster. From both a roster standpoint and an organizational vision standpoint, the Jets are a brand-new team compared to two weeks ago, and Fields’ approach must reflect those changes. Although Fields will probably not be the Jets’ long-term franchise quarterback, it’s critical for the future of the franchise that he alters his play style over the next nine games. New vision in Florham Park The Jets’ deadline frenzy signaled two significant changes to their plans. Firstly, the team is committed to building for 2026 and beyond, regardless of general manager Darren Mougey’s futile attempts to convince us otherwise. That means their goal for the rest of the 2025 season is not to stockpile as many victories as possible, but to develop pieces that can be a part of the long-term plan. The Jets would obviously love for victories to come alongside that, but the top priority is to unearth gems that can fill 2026 roster holes ahead of time, creating more flexibility in the offseason. The second overarching takeaway from New York’s moves is a philosophical shift in how the team wants to win games moving forward. All three of the core players dealt by Mougey hail from the defensive side of the ball. He did not trade away any offensive players, notably electing to keep running back Breece Hall. Of the three players acquired in exchange for the defensive mainstays, two are wide receivers. After decades of being a defense-first organization, these moves send the message that the Jets finally understand the modern NFL zeitgeist: Offense wins championships. The 2025 post-bye-week Jets will operate much differently than the pre-bye-week version. Before the bye, the Jets were focused on establishing a gritty culture under Aaron Glenn by winning as many games as possible, particularly with a defensive-minded, ground-and-pound mindset. Post-bye, the Jets want to develop young talent for the future and begin establishing their identity as an offensive-minded franchise. It falls on the starting quarterback to facilitate that shift. What the Jets need from Justin Fields moving forward So far in 2025, Fields has played an incredibly safe style of football to support the Jets’ pre-bye goals of winning games behind their defense. Fields has thrown zero interceptions in seven starts. That’s a great accomplishment in a vacuum, but Fields only achieved it because of his extremely conservative approach. Among 30 quarterbacks with at least 180 dropbacks, Fields has the fifth-lowest average depth of target (7.1) and the second-highest sack rate (11.8%). He is the only quarterback ranked top-five in both categories. Fields is interception-less because he rarely takes chances. Instead of forcing dangerous passes, he throws checkdowns and eats sacks. It helps him protect the ball, but it’s also caused him to have three games with under 50 passing yards. Fields is fourth-worst in the NFL with 4.9 net yards per pass attempt, a career low. That approach failed to help the Jets win games; they’re 1-7, after all. The consequences of Fields’ ball security far outweigh the benefits. With Sauce Gardner and Quinnen Williams gone, it will only become even more difficult for the Jets to win games with Fields playing that brand of football—dare we say impossible? The Jets are already sixth-worst in the NFL with 27.6 points per game allowed. They allowed 38 points without Gardner last week. It’s a fair assumption that, moving forward, there is a realistic chance that New York will allow more than 30 points per game over the final nine weeks. If the Jets are going to have any chance of winning games, Fields has to start taking risks—and lots of them. Wins are not the Jets’ priority, but this isn’t even about winning. Rather, it’s the perfect opportunity for the Jets to plant the seeds of the offensive-minded identity that they are focused on growing over the long haul. Prepare to cringe: We’re about to discuss the 2021 Detroit Lions again. When Dan Campbell and the 2021 Lions inspired faith with a 3-3 finish following an 0-10-1 start, it had little to do with their defense. Across the final six games, Detroit allowed 29.7 points per game, even more than the 26.3 points per game they allowed during the winless 11-game start. What shifted in Detroit was the offense. Over the final six games, the Lions averaged 25.1 points per game, a monumental jump from their 15.8 points per game through 11 games. Although the season was lost, Detroit’s late-season offensive surge set the tone for its evolution into one of the NFL’s premier offensive-minded franchises. The Lions have a 41-18 record since 2022, and it’s almost entirely because of the offense. Over that span, they are first in points (29.1 per game) and 19th in points allowed (22.7 per game). That’s the formula New York is seeking to emulate. By trading Gardner and Williams, the Jets sent the message that they’re ready to put their defense on the back burner and start embracing their offense as the nucleus of the team. They are not built to field an elite offense just yet, as they don’t have a franchise quarterback, but they can use these next nine games to begin the organizational shift to an offense-first mindset. It can only happen if Fields starts to air it out, though. Through Week 9, Fields has thrown just 12 deep passes (20+ air yards). That makes up 7.4% of his pass attempts, the third-lowest rate among qualifiers. He has thrown a league-leading 59% of his passes from 0-9 yards downfield. If the Jets want to start embedding an offensive mindset within the fabric of the organization, they must strongly encourage Fields to start firing the rock downfield with unabashed confidence. It doesn’t matter if those shots are reckless; they have to be taken, because it’s the only way to give the Jets a high enough ceiling to rack up points with their current roster. The Jets’ coaches should be honest with Fields about his interception number. He must understand that it will be okay if he throws one or even two interceptions per game as a byproduct of pushing the ball downfield. If they give him the green light to take shots with the knowledge that they won’t hold turnovers against him (unless they’re egregious), he will gain the necessary confidence to start airing it out. This isn’t guaranteed to lead to success. Fields was highly aggressive early in his career and lost plenty of games. It’s still the best approach, though, both for the sake of winning games now and establishing the franchise’s revamped philosophy. With a gutted defense, the Jets aren’t going to win games if they play it safe. And with a long-term focus on offense, they need to give themselves the highest possible offensive ceiling over the next nine games. The goal is to begin building a culture in Florham Park where running up the score is the expectation—just like Campbell’s Lions did at the end of their 2021 season. It’s also about evaluating the young receivers Beyond winning games in the short term and supporting the franchise’s long-term vision, Fields’ aggressiveness is important for the sake of evaluating the Jets’ young receivers. With the additions of John Metchie (25) and Adonai Mitchell (23), the Jets are loaded with youth at wide receiver. They will join up with fourth-round rookie Arian Smith (24) to give New York four 25-and-under receivers. Youth is not the only thing these receivers have in common. As prospects, they all find themselves in a similar boat. Metchie, Mitchell, and Smith have each built reputations as highly rated separators who have yet to translate their separation into production. According to Pro Football Focus, Smith has the best separation grade against man coverage among wide receivers this year.