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The spring and summer in the NFL are when hope springs eternal throughout the league.
Every team is undefeated and has high hopes with an influx of new players acquired in free agency and the draft.
The power of positive thinking reigns supreme this time of year.
The Arizona Cardinals have the potential to be the worst team in the NFL, with perhaps the worst roster, in probably the best division in the league, and without an ideal answer at QB right now.
However, don’t tell any of that to cornerback Will Johnson.
“I think we’ve got a good opportunity in front of us to surprise a lot of people this year,” Johnson recently told SiriusXM NFL Radio.
Unfortunately, a lot can change between the spring/summer and once the real games start when reality throws cold water on your hopes and dreams.
In the spring of 2026, the Jets signed QB Justin Fields to a two-year contract for $40 million with $30 million guaranteed, and the owner was feeling good about the move.
“I think Justin Fields is going to be a total winner for us,” Johnson said in March, 2025.
Johnson added: “He’s going to make a giant leap.”
In late October, Johnson said about Fields, “If we can just complete a pass, it would look good.”
In this league, things can change pretty fast from the spring/summer optimism to the fall.
And narratives can change quickly once real football starts.
I’d cut a Johnson some slack for this Fields stuff because it’s possible he was sold some swamp land on this deal about how they could take Fields to another level. But as Bill Parcells liked to say, “You are what your record says you are,” and Fields was 14-30 as a starter in his first four years in the league before arriving in Florham Park.
As Maya Angelou once said, “When people show you who they are, believe them.”
Fields was the same guy with the Jets; he was with the Chicago Bears and Pittsburgh Steelers, kind of a running back playing QB.
The point here is simple – don’t let spring enthusiasm cloud judgement, and deal with reality 100 percent of the time with players.
Optimism is fine, but it needs to be steeped in reality.
It seemed last season there were too many personnel evaluations with rose-colored glasses. The film doesn’t lie. Always good by the film.
And always put your players in their best position to be successful. Using a non-flexible athlete like Michael Clemons, who lacks bend or burst, as a third-down pass rusher made no sense, but they kept doing it over and over again. There are other examples, like the utilization of certain linebackers in coverage who were devoid of coverage instincts. Don’t want to get too much into last year at this state of the game, but you get the point.
Something else Johnson said last spring about Fields was kind of interesting,
“I think he’s going to be really good – he’s got to be put in the right situation,” Johnson said.
While it was probably a mistake to sign him and anoint him as the starter without a competition, you could certainly argue that perhaps he wasn’t “put in the right situation.”
He was put with a first-time NFL OC and was teamed with an awful defense that often made him play from behind, not ideal for a QB who is not a great pocket passer, and is not great at cutting big deficits due to his limitations as a pass rusher. He’s a formula QB who needs a good defense to keep the score down and win games 23-21.
So the bottom line is this for the 2026 Jets – no more delusional player evaluations. No more false hope with players. No more believing unrealistic press clippings from the spring.
The spring/summer hype in the NFL means squat.
Run a true meritocracy at all times that is always reality-based.
July 3, 2026
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