The only team without a win in the NFL after seven weeks is the New York Jets, who have Justin Fields under center. Despite sticking with the former Chicago Bears quarterback amid the struggles, Jets head coach Aaron Glenn finally benched Fields at halftime of their Week 7 loss to the Carolina Panthers.
Veteran signal-caller Tyrod Taylor didn't fare much better as the Jets failed to score a touchdown for the second straight week. Now, Fields' career is at a crossroads heading into a Week 8 clash against the Cincinnati Bengals.
Jets owner Woody Johnson spoke to the press about the looming quarterback decision. He said that it was entirely up to Glenn, and the head coach is reportedly leaning towards naming Taylor as his starter, according to ESPN's Rich Cimini.
Justin Fields on the Verge of Getting Benched by the Jets
If the Jets had a young, up-and-coming quarterback behind Fields, benching the ex-Bear makes a ton of sense. But Taylor is 36 years old and has limited upside. The fact that Fields is losing his starting job to Taylor speaks volumes about where he is as a signal-caller at this point in his career.
If he is, in fact, benched in favor of Taylor, it's hard to imagine Fields getting another starting role any time soon.
What complicates matters is the two-year, $40 million contract he signed with the Jets in the offseason. They will have to eat $22 million of dead cap next season if they were to release Fields, leaving a trade as the only viable option. With the November 4 trade deadline just around the corner, could the Jets consider trading Fields? Would there even be any serious interest in him at this point?
Perhaps the best-case scenario for Fields is that he gets his starting spot back when Taylor inevitably disappoints and can't turn the Jets' season around.
Therefore, if Fields has a few solid outings in meaningless games and gets a couple of wins during the final stretch of the season, it could help improve his trade value enough to allow the Jets to move on from him in the offseason. Fields becomes a QB2 somewhere, and to replace him, the Jets select a rookie quarterback with their draft pick.
That is obviously not where Bears fans thought Fields' career would be when Chicago drafted him in the first round of the 2021 NFL Draft. After only one year in Pittsburgh and now seven games with the Jets, Fields is running out of time to prove his worth in yet another destination. With how bad the Jets' offense looked with him under center, he has no one to blame but himself.