FLORHAM PARK, NJ – It appears the Jets avoided the kind of season-crushing quarterback injury that they frankly should be used to by now, the worst-case-scenario type that undoubtedly ran through the minds of every well-conditioned fan as word spread quickly Thursday morning that Justin Fields had been carted off the practice pitch.
It’s a well-earned Pavlovian response: A Jets quarterback gets hurt and here we go again. Add him the list. This one couldn’t even make it to the regular season.
But this isn’t like Vinny in 1999. It’s not like Aaron in 2023.
The Jets said Fields sustained a dislocated toe in his right foot and will be day-to-day. That he avoided serious injury and significant missed time, according to the Jets, doesn’t sound like it will be a wrecking ball to what the new regime is trying to build. That the injury came in late July, about six weeks before the regular-season opener, makes it feel like a worrisome inconvenience at worst.
It will require plenty of attention and work to get through and will be monitored strenuously. Fields may miss some valuable reps with his new teammates in the new system. That should be that, though. He and the other starters probably weren’t going to play much in the preseason games anyway. The Sept. 7 opener against the Steelers (and Aaron Rodgers) should still be within sight for Fields.
Even if this was the latest wave to crash on the Jets’ QB sandcastle, it wouldn’t have been like those other dire injuries that turned promising seasons into disasters. There are two words to explain why even a more serious defect to the new quarterback would not have produced the kind of overarching doom normally associated with this franchise.
Those words are “Tyrod” and “Taylor.”
Jets quarterback Justin Fields suffered a toe injury on Thursday at training camp in Florham Park, N.J. Head coach Aaron Glenn praised the abilities of backup QB Tyrod Taylor. Credit: Noah Murray
Unlike previous years when the Jets were blindsided by quarterbacking calamities and left with the likes of Rick Mirer and Ray Lucas or Zach Wilson and Tim Boyle, this time they are prepared with a capable, proven backup.
“Outstanding,” was actually the word head coach Aaron Glenn used to describe Taylor. Glenn was so confident in Taylor’s ability to fill in that twice during his media availability he accidentally said “Tyrod” when he meant to say “Justin.”
“We’re all good,” Glenn said of having Taylor ascend the depth chart. “We’re all good.”
Have the Jets actually learned from their mistakes of the past? That is definitely a big step in this team’s path to recovery in Inepts Annonymous.
Backup quarterback is the least important job on any team… until it isn’t. That’s where the Jets are now. With 14 years in the league, Taylor understands that thoroughly. So when he was needed this time, Taylor knew exactly what to do.
He came into the starting huddle on Thursday morning, looked at the group of obviously spirit-sapped players who had just seen their leader driven off the field, a unit that had been struggling through the earliest periods of the practice even with Fields running things, and went to work.
“He said: ‘We gotta pick it up,’” wide receiver Josh Reynolds said of Taylor’s message. “It was one of those vet things. ‘It’s not good enough.’ It was good for him to do that after what had happened. For him to step up and be like ‘We have to get this thing going.’”
Said guard Alijah Vera-Tucker of Tyrod’s brief address: “He said ‘Let’s lock in. Nothing changes. Let’s go on the field and dominate.’ That was that.”
For the rest of the practice they did. Taylor started flinging the ball (mostly to Garrett Wilson, a wise veteran move) and scrambling around and doing all the things that make him one of the most valuable non-playing players in the league.
“I thought the defense did a really good job of winning reps early in practice,” Glenn said. “But then after that [injury], man, the offense started to pick it up. When [Fields] went down, I actually saw the offense really start to pick it up.”
Maybe that’s as much an indictment of Fields as it is praise for Taylor. Or maybe it just speaks to the mentality that Glenn is trying to foster in his first training camp here. Glenn’s been a Jet. He knows the adversity and frustration that comes with that designation. He was on the 1999 team returning from an AFC Championship appearance when Testaverde went down in the opener.
On his first day of training camp earlier this week, he spoke candidly about the identity which has hounded the organization for more than half a century.
“I understand the pain,” he said, “and I’m hoping, I’m praying, and I expect to make sure that pain goes away.”
Anytime a player gets hurt, it casts a pall on the team. Anyone who gets carted off is worried about. When it’s the starting quarterback wincing and limping, all kinds of thoughts run through minds.
Initially, Thursday felt like it was a bad day in a series of bad days, years and decades that have blended together for the Jets when Fields went down.
But maybe, because of Taylor, because of his experience and ability, and because of the wisdom to invest in and maintain his presence on the roster, and because of the mindset transplant Glenn is in the process of orchestrating, it was actually one of the first good days they’ve had in a long while.
