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Justin Fields recently appeared on “The Official Jets Podcast” on the team’s website and YouTube, and said:
“I think I can be a player who has no limits, a player who can help everyone around him better, a player who can lead a team, a player who can be that guy. I’m just striving to be that player each and every day and really for everybody to know that I am that player. I know within myself I am that player, or I can get to that point, but I think it’s more for me showing everyone else and proving not only to myself but proving to the world. … You look at guys like Pat [Mahomes], you look at guys like Josh Allen, guys like Lamar [Jackson] where everyone knows they are elite quarterbacks. At the end of the day, that’s kind of my goal and that’s kind of where I want to get by the time I get done playing this sport.”
Look, goals are important, aspirations are awesome, but as Bill Parcells liked to say, “Know who you are.”
Not sure a player now entering his fifth NFL season, and who is 14-30 as a starting quarterback, is now going to turn into Mahomes, Allen or Jackson.
Now, this isn’t to say the Jets won’t be successful with Fields. Not saying that. Not saying that at all.
With the right approach, this certainly has a chance at working.
We have talked about the formula ad infinitum – RPOs, bootlegs, play-action passes, and so forth.
Tanner Engstrand and Aaron Glenn know what they have to do with this player.
Look, this isn’t rocket science.
But while he wants to eventually be a player with “no limits,” not sure that is realistic at this point.
We have seen this player at Georgia (where he didn’t beat out Jake Fromm) to Ohio State to Chicago to Pittsburgh.
There are limitations, especially related to field vision. It is what it is.
But you know what, the reigning Super Bowl MVP Jalen Hurts of the Philadelphia Eagles has “limits” and is probably never going to be as good as Mahomes, Allen and Jackson. Heck, he only had 18 TD passes last season, but you can win with him, as we have seen, with appearances in two Super Bowls, and winning one.
However, it has to be a formulaic approach. He is not going to put a team on his back.
He needs a good running game and a strong defense, like Philly had last year.
Same with Fields.
Like Hurts, Fields can be successful, but he needs the right infrastructure around him, especially a strong offensive line, and the Jets, on paper, seem to have that.
So this could certainly work out for the Jets and Fields.
But it is a long shot he’s going to turn into Mahomes, Allen or Jackson at this stage of the game.
And that should not be taken as a personal affront to the player.
Just the reality of his skill set.
He’s a tremendous athlete with great wheels and a howitzer arm, but needs great play-calling to help him manufacture production.
July 4, 2025
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