Aaron Glenn refuses to name Jets QB1 despite Justin Fields’ impressive outing in 39-38 win over Bengals

Who will be the New York Jets’ starting quarterback in the future remains a mystery.

This comes despite the team getting their first victory of the season last weekend, thanks in large part to the outstanding play of Justin Fields. The Jets’ QB went 21/32 for 244 yards and 1 touchdown in their 39-38 win over the Cincinnati.

While he praised the former first-round draft pick for his resilience, Jets head coach Aaron Glenn isn’t ready to hand over the offense to Fields just yet, at least not publicly.

“This is the bye week, and we’re gonna focus on us. Listen, I have time to make that decision,” said Glenn (Time Stamp 7:37).

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The Jets improved to 1-7 with their victory on Sunday and won’t play again until November 9 against the Cleveland Browns. While he didn’t say Fields would be the starter moving forward, Glenn had plenty of good things to say about his outing on Sunday.

“I think he played the game exactly like we see him playing for us to win the game… There are still some things within that game that he has to improve on,” Glenn added (Timestamp 8:16).

With a record of 1-7, it is the Jets’ worst start to a regular season since losing their first 14 games to begin the 2020 season. Fields was put on the bench during the team’s dismal 13-6 loss to the Carolina Panthers. Both he and Tyrod Taylor struggled.

A knee injury has kept Taylor on the sidelines, giving Fields another chance to make an impact. It’s only one game, but Fields made as good an impression as one could have imagined.

Emotional week for Justin Fields

When you have as bad a start to the season as the Jets did, there’s a lot of emotion tied to that. For Justin Fields, especially, he’s been in the eye of the storm with owner Woody Johnson, who said after Fields’ first six starts that it’s hard to win:

“When you have a quarterback with a rating that he’s got.”

At the time, Fields’ rating was a dismal 32.1. After their win over the Bengals, Fields referred to the owner’s criticism as:

“Outside noise.”

Fields admits that heading into their game with Cincinnati, he was not in a good place emotionally.

“I’m going to get pretty vulnerable right here. This week, I found myself in my closet crying on the ground, laying down,” says Fields.

He adds that he’d been praying for a win to help him out and get the team back on track. They have a chance on November 9 to win consecutive games for the first time since September 2024.

Edited by Joel Lefevre