Pittsburgh Steelers fans questioned whether Mike Tomlin made the right move by benching Justin Fields entering Week 7 of the 2024 season. We also questioned whether the Steelers should have re-signed Fields during the 2025 free agency period. As it turns out, the Steelers knew what they were doing by letting him walk.
Through a third of his first season with the New York Jets, things couldn't have gone worse for the veteran quarterback. The Jets are off to a 0-6 start (0-5 with Fields starting), and in Week 6, things continue to spiral out of control.
Fields' performance on Sunday against the Denver Broncos went viral for all of the wrong reasons. The polarizing quarterback finished the game with a mere 45 passing yards on 17 attempts (2.6 yards per attempt). But it gets worse.
Fields took a whopping nine sacks against Denver for -55 yards. When you take the difference between his passing yards and sack yards, Fields netted -10 yards in Week 6 on drop-backs, per ESPN stats. This is as bad as anything we've seen in the modern NFL.
What's most bizarre is that the Jets' defense did enough to give Fields a final shot to win the game on the last drive of the fourth quarter, but the quarterback fell flat. And if we didn't know before this moment, we know now: Fields is never going to be a franchise quarterback.
The Pittsburgh Steelers narrowly escaped Justin Fields nightmare in 2025
The Pittsburgh Steelers are a better organization than the New York Jets; there's no question about that. Last year in Pittsburgh, Fields went 4-2 as a starter to begin the season while taking good care of the football. But we're in Year 5 of Fields now, and the former first-round pick hasn't shown hardly any improvement as a passer.
We all know what Fields is capable of doing with his legs. However, his rushing ability will never be enough to overcome his passing deficiencies. Fields is averaging just 159.8 passing yards per game. This is just three yards up from his career average (156.0). Interestingly, Fields has never averaged 200 passing yards per game or more in a single season. This is a discouraging sign.
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Fields has taken care of the football as a passer, throwing zero interceptions through his first five games of the 2025 season. But in a way, that almost makes the Jets' lack of success even worse. If Fields is this bad when he's taking care of the ball, what's it going to look like when he's not?
Pittsburgh Steelers fans can be thankful that Justin Fields chose the Jets over the Steelers in free agency. We're only a third of a season into Fields' tenure with the Jets, but we can already confidently say that he's not a franchise quarterback.