Al Iannazzone: Jets' Darren Mougey scores major win by getting anything back for Justin Fields
New York Jets quarterback Justin Fields takes the field for warmups before a game against the Atlanta Falcons at MetLife Stadium on Nov. 30, 2025. Credit: Brad Penner
The Justin Fields era started with promise and hope, but both faded quickly. Fields joined a long list of Jets quarterbacks whose stay with the franchise was brief after falling well short of expectations.
The Jets moved on from Fields on Monday, and not in the way that anyone expected. Surprisingly, he was not released. General manager Darren Mougey made a shrewd move and found a taker for him after a dreadful one-and-done season as a Jet.
Fields is heading to Kansas City for a 2027 sixth-round pick, pending a physical, a league source said. The Jets will have to pay $7 million of his $10 million guaranteed salary for 2026. So what.
The Jets would have had to pay Fields $10 million if no deal had presented itself. The fact that Mougey got draft capital in what is considered a loaded 2027 draft for a player who was not going to be back with the team was a great business move.
Everyone knew that Fields had no future with the Jets long before they made the trade last week to acquire Geno Smith. It was obvious from Fields’ pitiful performance last season — which was ripped by owner Woody Johnson — and his benching in Week 12 that his days as a Jet were numbered.
“It’s hard [to win] when you have a quarterback with a rating that he’s got,” Johnson said in October. “If we can just complete a pass, it would look good.”
Yet Mougey flipped Fields for a draft pick less than a week after receiving some criticism for swapping late-round selections with Las Vegas instead of waiting for Smith to be released.
Concerned that if Smith hit free agency, another team would scoop him up, Mougey made a calculated trade for the Jets’ starting quarterback in 2026. He made an even more prudent one by getting something for the Jets’ starting quarterback in 2025.
This is more than balancing the scales.
Mougey has made a number of trades that have looked good both on paper and on the field. It’s early, but this Fields deal has to rank pretty high on his greatest hits list.
A perfect storm led to Fields joining his fourth team in four years. Kansas City needed a backup for Patrick Mahomes after Gardner Minshew signed with Arizona. Mahomes is recovering from an ACL tear suffered in December. Fields will get an opportunity to lead Kansas City’s offense through training camp and perhaps early in the regular season.
This could work out well for Fields, who was taken by Chicago with the No. 11 pick in 2021. If playing for Kansas City coach Andy Reid, one of the best offensive minds in the NFL, and sharing a quarterback room with Mahomes doesn’t help him, nothing will.
The Jets made Fields their big offseason signing last March, giving him a two-year contract for $30 million guaranteed. Coach Aaron Glenn was confident that he and his assistants would be able to develop the dual threat into a complete quarterback.
It was a gross miscalculation and overestimation of everyone’s abilities.
Fields had major difficulty moving the offense and getting the Jets into the end zone. They went 2-7 in his nine starts and scored one touchdown or fewer in four of the games.
Fields threw for 1,259 yards, seven touchdowns and one interception. His passing yards and touchdowns were the fewest among quarterbacks who started at least seven games last season.
“You want your passing game to be better,” Glenn said after benching Fields and turning to Tyrod Taylor in November. “That’s not totally on him. There’s a number of things that go into that.”
Fields teased the Jets and their fans in Week 1, throwing for 218 yards and a touchdown and rushing for two scores in a 34-32 loss to the Steelers. The defeat was pinned on the defense, and optimism was high that Glenn and offensive coordinator Tanner Engstrand could tap into something with Fields.
It didn’t last long. In his next eight starts, he passed for 54 or fewer yards four times. They were the four lowest outputs in games that he started in his career.
The fact that the Jets were able to get something for Fields is something that they couldn’t get much with him — a win.
Al Iannazzone covers the Jets for Newsday after spending nearly two decades on the NBA beat with Knicks and Nets.
