TBH Fields is the ultimate playground player. He's not great at running a system. He constantly wants to improvise and, honestly, he is pretty good at it. It can win games, but not in the playoffs. He could get us there though - with some help and good defense.
Well I think part of the problem is that Fields has played in a million systems already since he’s entered the league and it’s made it difficult for him to be comfortable in the confines of a structured offense. It doesn’t make it any better for us that he’s within another system yet again but it’s always harder to get such great raw athletes at QB to play within the structure especially when it’s constantly changing. The Jets just need to run a conservative play action type of offense that features him in the run gun and lets him throw deep. We have a good infrastructure to do that with our stable of running backs and hopefully they add some beef on the line/at tightend before the start of the season.
He did very little improvisation in Arthur Smith’s high powered offensive system last year. So whose great offensive system did Fields fail to run properly because of his uncontrollable need to improvise? Was it Bill Lazor’s or Luke Getsy’s?
I looked at Field's scouting report from 2021. It said he needed time and good coaching to develop at the next level. Time he's had but I don't know if he has played in a system that took advantage of his skills. He has the arm and legs to play the position and is probably one of the best athletes at QB in the NFL. Unlike the Bears situation and Steelers both teams were under pressure to win right away. The Jets can win but will settle for improvement. You can't teach talent and he has plenty of it. Let's see if they can coach him up.
I have little faith in Fields as a passer but I'm intrigued by how we might use him as a runner. Ideally, you want a QB who is good at actually passing the ball, but we've had so little success on offense over the past decade that I'll take yards however we can get them.
I've pointed this out a lot in the past, but reading through the last few pages of the "nothing between his ears and kid can't throw" stuff it's worth repeating again. Justin Field's last 10 games tape in 2023 looks really good when you take a deep dive into watching it, and with at least with some accompanying acknowledgement to all the fail happening around him. Put that taking a step forward player on Washington last year with Kingsbury as his great fit OC and there is a good chance you get the Jayden Daniels type outcome imo. I said it last year before Daniels "break out" happened.....coaching and OC fits matter. You can't just lazily gloss past that. Justin Fields Last 16 games started: 18/6 TD-Int ratio 8 rushing td 3142 passing yards 779 rush yards 63.7% comp 93.1 passer rating Patrick Mahomes's 2024 16 game regular season: 26/11 TD-Int ratio 2 rushing td 3928 passing yards 307 rush yards 67.5% comp 93.5 passer rating Again, it's probably not likely to happen here with Engstrand in my own fairly pessimistic take of our 2025 outlook. But if/when Fields ends up in a better then league worst to faily mediocre support system the room for expected improvement levels there can potentially end up looking pretty damn solid imo.
Agree with everything except for your opinion of Engstrand. We actually do not know exactly how deep his capabilities are and what he can eventually grow into. It is absolutely not a forgone conclusion that he can not develop into a top OC, far from it. Just because he did not go with Johnson is absolutely not an indicator, and if he did he would have never had the chance to call his own plays. We shall see three years down the road.
New 1st-time GM, new 1st-time HC, new work in progress QB, and coming off several years of poor coaching with little discipline. You can almost bet it will be a rough start for the Jets this season. The important thing is to see improvement as the season progresses.
My two cents. I don’t know what most of the Jets fan base expects, but rest assured, you don’t change 20 years of dysfunctional behavior and performance over night. It will be a rough ride, but it starts by properly shaping the mindset of where this organization need to be and execute a long term plan to get there. Quick band aid fixes with end of career HOF players lathered with massive contracts, inferior CS staff on both sides of the ball, catering to a couple of players and expecting a miracle was clearly not the way to go. We should only expect a discipline team on the field and steady, small improvements.
