Aaron Glenn played games all week about who his starting quarterback would be for Sunday’s game against the Bengals. But Gang Green’s coach couldn’t even get that charade across the goal line as the news leaked on Saturday.
Embattled QB Justin Fields will be back under center in Cincinnati as Tyrod Taylor has been ruled out with a knee injury, the Daily News learned Saturday morning and the Jets confirmed a few hours later. Taylor is not expected to travel with the Jets and rookie Brady Cook will serve as the backup QB.
Last week, Fields was finally benched for Taylor in the Jets game against the Panthers. However, the results remained the same as the Jets lost their seventh consecutive game to begin the season.
Glenn said this week he was confident in both Fields and Taylor. But as the late, great John Madden said, “If you have two quarterbacks, you have none.”
“We will have a quarterback on Sunday. I will tell you that,” Glenn told reporters. “I wouldn’t want to give them a competitive advantage when I have that opportunity, but we’ll have a quarterback.”
Glenn even doubled down on Friday by still refusing to name a starter.
“I cannot tell you that,” Glenn said.
When asked if it was because he didn’t want to, Glenn stated, “That’s exactly it.”
Not sure who Glenn was trying to fool here, the Bengals, the fans or the media. But we all know the Jets future quarterback is certainly not on their current roster.
Even Jets owner Woody Johnson isn’t a fan of Fields.
“It’s hard when you have a quarterback with a rating that he’s got,” Johnson said this week. “I mean, he has the ability, but something just is not jiving. If we can just complete a pass, it would look good.”
Following a roller-coaster start to his career, the Jets took a chance on Fields and gave him a two-year, $40 million contract in March after he went 4-2 in limited action with the Steelers in 2024.
After he was hired in January as head coach, Glenn told fans and reporters to “put your seat belts on and get ready for the ride.” The ride has been an absolute dumpster fire for the winless Jets (0-7), and Glenn has at times looked over his head with many of his coaching decisions.
Fields’ play has been dreadful. He has thrown for 845 yards and four touchdowns in six starts (Fields missed Week 3 due to a concussion), but the offense with Fields under center has scored just four touchdowns over the previous four games, none in the last two weeks. He ranks 31st in Total QBR with a career-low 31.8.
“I think when you get in the game, I think it’s tough sticking to the game plan,” Fields said. “We get different looks from defenses and stuff like that and you get some stuff that you don’t expect.
“I try to talk to [offensive coordinator] Tanner [Engstrand] a lot and try to communicate what I’d like to get ran throughout the week and then sometimes things change based on how the game is going or what situation we’re in, but I mean, I know that we’re trying.”
A critical weakness is that Fields holds the ball too long in the pocket, resulting in multiple sacks. The Jets have given up 15 sacks in just their last two games and a league-high 31 this season. To put that in perspective, the Colts offensive line has allowed just six sacks in seven games this season.
As a result, the Jets have one of the worst offenses in the NFL. They rank 29th in yards (271.3) and 27th in points per game (18.4).
“I’m disappointed for our team that we’re sitting here at 0-7, not just individually for Justin,” Engstrand said.
“I’m disappointed that I haven’t been able to help deliver wins on a consistent basis for the team, not just Justin individually. So, to me, there’s quarterbacks, and there’s always going to be questions around the quarterbacks. It’s the main focal point of a team a lot of times, but really it’s about the unit and the team, and us finding ways to get better and improve. We’re working on a daily basis, myself included.”
At 0-7, the Jets will almost certainly miss the playoffs for the 15th consecutive season, which is the longest drought in North American sports. Big-picture-wise, the Jets and their scouts know they have a massive decision to make next offseason about who will be the team’s quarterback of the future, especially since the Jets would have the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft as of now.
Whoever that is will be expected to get the Jets out of the black hole they’ve been in for the past decade and a half. Many Jets fans hope the team drafts Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza.
Coming into this college football season, some experts expected the 2026 crop of quarterbacks to be significantly better than last year, when Cam Ward and Jaxson Dart were the only two signal-callers taken in the first round. Next year’s draft class likely will be on paper at least, but the names at the top are vastly different from what many anticipated.
Texas’ Arch Manning and Penn State’s Drew Allar have been replaced by Mendoza, Alabama’s Ty Simpson and Oregon’s Dante Moore. South Carolina’s LaNorris Sellers is still projected to be a first-round pick, but his play has been pedestrian this season (1,134 yards, five TDs and two interceptions).
Mendoza is the best chance for Glenn and Engstrand to get their hands on a Jared Goff clone. After transferring from Cal, Mendoza has become one of the best quarterbacks in the nation. He has excellent arm talent, a high football IQ and can make accurate throws while defenders collapse inside the pocket.
Mendoza doesn’t have a ton of athleticism, but enough to create opportunities by extending plays with his legs and even throwing on the run. This is exactly what the Jets could use offensively, but they will have to wait until next April.
In the meantime, the Jets are going to play out the string with Fields and/or Taylor. But 2026 will represent the most significant decision the Jets have faced since 2021, when they drafted Zach Wilson No. 2 overall. We all know how the Wilson pick turned out, which puts even more pressure on Glenn, Johnson and Jets general manager Darren Mougey to solve the team’s quarterback issues once and for all.
