Ever since the start of the 2025 offseason, New York Jets head coach Aaron Glenn boasted confidently that the organization would be able to fix quarterback Justin Fields.

After nine starts with the team, though, Gang Green is pulling the plug on the Fields experiment.

Glenn confirmed Wednesday afternoon that the team would bench the former first-round quarterback in favor of a 36-year-old journeyman in Tyrod Taylor. At 2-8, and with a struggling offense, Glenn believed it was time to make a switch at the most important position.

It also meant they would need to answer for their failings at truly “fixing” Fields.

Glenn speaks out on passing game’s struggles

RPOs, read-options, and quick hitters—that always seemed to be the best way for the Jets to maximize Fields’ skill set when they gave him a two-year, $40 million contract to be their starting quarterback. During the first week of the regular season, those play designs worked.

Since that impressive debut, though, Fields and the passing offense have struggled mightily. Not only are the Jets 2-8, but they also have the worst passing offense in the NFL. In four of the last five games, New York has failed to record over 150 yards through the air.

Because of those numbers, Fields’ time as a starter is over. However, that doesn’t mean he’s entirely to blame for the unit’s struggles.

“There’s a number of things,” Glenn said when talking about how the Jets offense has failed with Fields. “You want your passing game to be better and that’s not totally on him. There’s a number of things that go into that. At this point, I just feel like we have to do something to get this team going offensively in the passing game, and I just felt like it was time to make that decision.”

It wasn’t the first time this season that the Jets contemplated a switch. New York benched Fields at halftime of their Week 7 loss to Carolina, but an injury to Taylor allowed Fields to stay in the starting lineup.

The decision to bench Fields comes at a cost for the current coaching staff. They believed they could turn the former Bear into a quality starting quarterback. It was their decision not to put Fields through a position battle in camp.

Now, they are left with the reality that the signing didn’t work.

It’s due in large part to Fields being the same signal-caller he has been over the course of his career.

Where Jets go from here

By making a move like this, New York is effectively ending the Justin Fields era in Florham Park. What happens next, though, is much more of a mystery.

For the final seven games of the regular season, they are hoping Tyrod Taylor can stabilize the offense. It’s why Glenn focused more on the unit’s overall improvement than just the quarterback position.

“We all got to be in sync together,” Glenn said. “I talked to everybody that’s involved. It has to be a collective effort in making sure we do what’s right by Tyrod also to help him be able to succeed in this situation.”

Taylor has been injury-prone throughout his career. There’s a good chance that he won’t be able to play in all of those final games. If Taylor goes down, Fields remains the Jets’ backup quarterback for now, rather than undrafted rookie Brady Cook.

While New York isn’t looking ahead to potential matchups in the future, the organization knows it will have to figure out the quarterback position in the long term.

Fields, as it turns out, wasn’t the answer they were hoping for.