The Athletic: At some point, Justin Fields will have to throw the ball

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6558016/2025/08/17/justin-fields-jets-offense-passing-game/

At some point, Justin Fields will have to throw the ball — it would be nice to see it this summer

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — The way the Jets have run their offense this summer — in preseason games and during training-camp practices — it would be fair to suggest they’re passing on passing.

It’s not hard to see the vision: a running quarterback in Justin Fields, a trio of talented running backs, an offensive line that has thrived at run-blocking. Run it down your throat. Old-school, smashmouth football. On Saturday night against the Giants, during the second drive of their second preseason game, the Jets showed what they can look like when it’s working. There they were handing it off on a third-and-8, Braelon Allen bursting through a hole and gaining 11 yards for a first down. If you can get first downs running on third-and-long, why pass it? Then there was another run, and another, and another. Fields dropped back to pass it and had running back Breece Hall open in the flat, but instead opted to scramble up the middle for 5 more yards. And then came another run, and another, and one more.

“Coach harps on showing our DNA and our brand of football,” Allen said. “When the offense takes the field, that’s the goal.”

After 10 straight runs, Fields attempted a pass. The Jets were at the 20-yard line, third-and-2, when he tried a quick slant to Garrett Wilson — it fell incomplete (more the product of a good play on the ball by Giants corner Cor’Dale Flott than a bad throw, but still incomplete). The Jets settled for a field goal. The drive was an impressive show of the ground game, but this is the part of the season when the quarterback could use some practice, well, throwing the ball. At some point, Fields is going to have to do just that to win a regular-season game.

For the second straight week — and that includes practices — Fields hasn’t thrown it very far past the line of scrimmage. He’s averaged 3.9 air yards per attempt on nine passes over two preseason games, and that number would probably look similar if anyone was tracking it during two joint practices against the Giants. It’s hard to remember the last time Fields threw the ball more than 20 yards in the air.

Earlier in the week, coach Aaron Glenn was not thrilled at a line of questioning about how Fields’ throws have been almost exclusively in the short-to-intermediate areas — and often in the realm of dump-offs.

“He’s progressing. He’s progressing,” Glenn said on Wednesday. “That’s what he’s doing, he’s being a quarterback. I know everybody wants to see the long ball, but he’s progressing. That’s the simplest I could answer that question.”

The passes he threw on Saturday, the short ones, weren’t very good. His first throw was a short dump-off on a roll-out to Mason Taylor for 4 yards — the only passing yards he registered. On his second pass, edge rusher Kayvon Thibodeaux easily got by right tackle Armand Membou and as he was hitting Fields, the quarterback attempted a jump-pass; it sailed over Hall’s head.

The third pass was a bad snap but there was not a defender in sight. Fields bounced a pass intended for Wilson on a screen. Wilson would have been tackled for a loss anyway — the blocking on the boundary was terrible — but it was a bad throw nonetheless.


The fifth passing play came on that all-runs drive, when he opted to scramble rather than hit Hall in the flat. His final pass was the third-down incompletion intended for Wilson.

Fields’ final tally against the Giants: 1-of-5 for 4 passing yards and one rush for 5 yards. The Jets eventually lost 31-12.

Glenn was not keen on addressing Fields’ performance specifically, only saying after the game that “I don’t want to say the same things over and over again. The offense in general was not good enough.”

Fields completed 3-of-4 passes for 42 yards against the Packers last week, yet still averaged only 5 air yards per attempt. Most of the yardage came after the catch, and 39 of them went to fullback Andrew Beck. Fields is not the only culprit when it comes to the lack of air yards — the Jets are still waiting for a wide receiver to emerge outside of Wilson, who will be the primary focus of opposing defenses all season.

Fields admitted he stood on the sideline on Saturday and realized he hasn’t really thrown the ball downfield much lately. He said the Jets called one deep pass today, on the play where he scrambled up the middle.

“I was thinking about that today,” Fields said. “It’s the defense taking it away … it’ll come. No need to force it. When you force it, that’s when tipped balls and picks happen. My mindset is always going to be take what the defense gives me.”

 

So far this summer, Fields has not inspired confidence that he’s a different quarterback than he was in Chicago and Pittsburgh — that is, an extremely athletic quarterback with good arm strength but limitations in terms of accuracy and processing. It’s only the preseason and far too early to panic, but it is fair to wonder how long the Jets can survive without a passing game that can threaten defenses. A quarterback who’s not willing to take shots down the field, in the preseason, is not someone who’s going to scare opposing defensive coordinators.

Maybe this is all part of the Jets’ plan. Perhaps Fields not taking any shots isn’t his own choosing, but the design of what the coaches want him to do. If that’s true, it still doesn’t make much sense — the time to practice those moments, those throws, is now. There is only one preseason game left, and it’s unclear whether Fields will participate in that game. There are only two full practices left in training camp for the Jets, on Tuesday and Wednesday, the other days will be light walkthroughs.

“We’re in a solid spot,” Fields said. “I’m always going to say we need to improve, we have room to improve. You guys can ask me how do I feel about this? How do I feel about that? It’s going to be the same answer every time. There’s room to grow in every aspect, the offense, myself, everyone.”

Glenn echoed that sentiment about the passing game, saying: “Listen, it’s up and down. There’s been a lot of ups in camp I really like. Today was not one of those days, which was obvious, but I still have a lot of confidence in what those guys can do. Because they’ve shown it.”

The season starts on Sept. 7 against a Steelers coaching staff that knows well what Fields can — and can’t — do. When Fields started for six games and went 4-2 to start last season, it was built around an offense mostly trying to limit the mistakes he could possibly make. Then, he was benched for Russell Wilson, a flawed, aging quarterback, but a quarterback willing to take deep shots.

Coincidentally, Wilson was on the other sideline on Saturday. He completed one moon ball to Beaux Collins for 80 yards, setting up a touchdown. He also airmailed a pass later in the second quarter, easily picked off by Jets cornerback Qwan’tez Stiggers. The thing that mattered most about both throws: that he even tried to make them.

It doesn’t make much sense to play scared in the preseason — scared to pass, at least. The Jets clearly aren’t afraid to run it every play if they have to. But they won’t win many games if they don’t counterbalance that with more than just a short passing game. Glenn insists that he’s not concerned.

“Our passing game has to be better,” Glenn said. “We all know that — and it will be better. We have to go back to work. There’s going to be a lot of noise on the outside, and I get it. But our guys know we’re going to put our heads down and go back to work.”

This is the time of the year to work through those lumps. But the Jets would be better served by Fields actually trying to make those plays rather than avoiding them altogether.