Gang Green Nation
I have spoken with a number of people who write about the Jets both on this site and in other places over the last couple of weeks for various reasons. It’s amazing how often the same point gets brought up over and over.
It’s not easy to write about this team at the moment because there are only so many different ways you can say, “This team completely stinks,” before you just sound like you are repeating yourself.
That really comes into play this week, a second consecutive when the Jets squandered a defensive performance that held the opposition to 13 points. Once again the offense was held out of the end zone, squandering that winning effort by the defense.
There were some thing that changed this week. Notably, Justin Fields was benched at halftime. Aaron Glenn scoffed at a question whether Fields would be benched in his postgame press conference in London a week ago. Two quarters later, he made a quarterback change. He didn’t really have a choice. Fields has been unplayable as of late. There’s probably no more glaring indictment of Fields than the fact Tyrod Taylor looked terrible, posting a ludicrously low QBR of 13, and the offense still looked tangibly improved.
Much to the chagrin of Jets fans, I doubt Fields has taken his last snap with the team. Taylor probably can’t stay healthy for ten games, and he likely will play his way out of the lineup at some point even if he can. Absence makes the heart grow stronger. A few bad Tyrod games, and many (although certainly not all) people will start to theorize that Fields’ time at the bench allowed for a “reset.”
With all that said, the Justin Fields Era with the Jets is over for all intents and purposes, and it is a colossal failure. Even if Fields gets late season action, there’s little that can be done to erase what has happened.
I would argue this should have big picture implications for the people running the team. We all knew going into the season that the Jets would not be a great team. The Playoffs and a winning record were unlikely. So we needed to find new benchmarks to judge a new regime.
Fields felt like one of the easiest. He is a quarterback who had plenty of natural ability and some track record of high level play in the league. The Jets invested in him as a reclamation project. One of the most important ways to judge a regime is how well they evaluate these reclamation projects. Can they correctly assess which players they are capable of getting more from?
In Fields’ case, the answer isn’t just no. It is a resounding no. Fields’ play through his first four years wasn’t good enough. If anything, he has looked worse than the guy who failed his way out of Chicago. As has so often been the case through Jets regime after Jets regime, players become the worst versions...
