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On March 13, 2025, Justin Fields signed a two-year, $40 million contract with the New York Jets. $30 million of the deal was guaranteed.
On March 16, 2026, the Jets traded Fields to the Kansas City Chiefs for a 2027 sixth-round pick.
So this experiment lasted a little over a year.
Sporting News Headline – “Jets to trade Justin Fields after $40 million mistake to Chiefs.”
The operative number here is $40 million.
The two big issues with this failed experiment were the contract they gave the player and anointing him the starter last March with no competition.
Neither one of those decisions made any sense.
It’s unclear who made those decisions, but reading the tea leaves, you’d have to think Aaron Glenn was at the tip of the spear of those decisions. He had all the power at the time.
But according to longtime New York sports talk host Mike Francesa, that is no longer the case. Francesa claimed on a recent podcast that “Mougey is now in charge. It is not equal.” Thanks to Jake Asman for bringing these comments to the fore. As I write this today, I can’t verify this one way or another, but I will do some digging and try to find out more.
I will do a deeper dive on this tomorrow, but the Reader’s Digest version of what Francesa was reporting is that after a disastrous first year as coach, Glenn has lost some juice to Mougey.
And if this story is accurate, one contributing factor had to be signing Fields to that huge contract, anointing him the starter, and then how he played.
That contract was profligate to say the least.
As I’ve written many times, I had no issue with the Jets taking a flyer on Fields, kicking the tires, see what they could get out of him.
How about giving him what Mac Jones got from the San Francisco 49ers, a two-year deal for $8.4 million with $4.8 million guaranteed.
Why would you give Fields $30 million guaranteed?
Based on what? His 14-30 record at the time of the signing?
Was Fields resume better than Jones?
So if you’re Woody Johnson, or his right-hand man, Ira Axselrad, a financial genius (and I’m not being facetious), how would you feel in retrospect about such a bad contract?
Remember when Johnson made headlines at the NFL’s in-season owners’ meeting last year October, when he said about Fields, “If we can just complete a pass, it would look good.”
You rarely hear that kind of talk from an owner about his team’s quarterback. I can’t remember anything like that. Very unique.
So what went wrong with the Fields experiment, and why was Andy Reid willing to take a flyer on him?
Patriots radio analyst Scott Zolak put it best when the Jets had 23 yards passing at one point of the third quarter in a game at New England last season.
“I don’t think he’s a quarterback that can run, he’s a running back that can throw,” Zolak said about Fields.
Bingo!
So why does Reid want him?
Simple.
If Patrick Mahomes can’t play in a game or two, if you are a top-shelf play-caller like Reid, one of the best at it of all time, you can manufacture production with Fields through great play-calling.
A lot of chicanery – RPOs, read options, bootlegs, a lot of misdirection, designed QB sneaks.
The problem for Fields with the Jets was that he was teamed with a first-time NFL play-caller.
Tanner Engstrand is a smart guy, and he landed on his feet very quickly after being fired by the Jets, hired as the Atlanta Falcons’ passing game coordinator, but perhaps he wasn’t the right OC to work with Fields, if you were going to make this work, which was a long shot anyway.
You needed a master chess player, a a veteran OC, armed with tons of bells and whistles to cover for the QBs shortcomings as a pocket pass.
Look at the job Ben Johnson did with Caleb Williams in Chicago, and Klint Kubiak did in Seattle with Sam Darnold last year. Now, Williams and Darnold are probably a little better passers than Fields, but not as much as you think. The sequencing of their play-calling to buttress the two QBs, shows you how much developmental QBs can be helped with OC’s good at manufacturing production with their play-calling.
The Fields-Engstrand marriage was not ideal.
Reid didn’t acquire Fields to be a long-term answer at QB for the Chiefs, but to get them through a few games, perhaps at the beginning of the season.
But for Mougey to get a sixth-round pick for Fields, and for the Chiefs to take on some of his salary, considering how the QB played last year, aside from a couple of games, was impressive.
March 17, 2026
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