{"id":261664,"date":"2026-01-05T13:30:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T18:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=261664"},"modified":"2026-01-04T19:09:05","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T00:09:05","slug":"jets-expected-to-cut-40-million-bust-justin-fields-3-suitors-for-2026-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2026\/01\/05\/jets-expected-to-cut-40-million-bust-justin-fields-3-suitors-for-2026-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Jets Expected to Cut $40 Million Bust &#8211; 3 Suitors for 2026 Season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After having one of the worst campaigns in football, the New York Jets will reportedly cut quarterback Justin Fields. <a href=\"https:\/\/bleacherreport.com\/articles\/25347915-how-justin-fields-contract-impacts-potential-trade-jets-eye-new-qb1-2026\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">According to Bleacher Report<\/a>, they don&#8217;t think the Jets will have the money to trade him, so this will force them to cut Fields, which he will be able to sign anywhere he wants with a team that&#8217;s interested. After signing a two-year contract in New York and reuniting with <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/11\/10\/report-jets-star-garrett-wilson-out-for-three-games-after-knee-sprain\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">wide receiver Garrett Wilson,<\/a> there was a lot of hope going into the regular season. Unfortunately for the Jets, it hasn&#8217;t worked in their favor since benching the quarterback in favor of Tyrod Taylor.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_257659\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-257659\" style=\"width: 992px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-257659\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/12\/Jets-Quarterback-Injury-Could-Open-the-Door-for-Undrafted-Rookie-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Jets' Quarterback Injury Could Open the Door for Undrafted Rookie\" width=\"992\" height=\"661\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/12\/Jets-Quarterback-Injury-Could-Open-the-Door-for-Undrafted-Rookie-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/12\/Jets-Quarterback-Injury-Could-Open-the-Door-for-Undrafted-Rookie-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/12\/Jets-Quarterback-Injury-Could-Open-the-Door-for-Undrafted-Rookie-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/12\/Jets-Quarterback-Injury-Could-Open-the-Door-for-Undrafted-Rookie-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/12\/Jets-Quarterback-Injury-Could-Open-the-Door-for-Undrafted-Rookie-2048x1366.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/12\/Jets-Quarterback-Injury-Could-Open-the-Door-for-Undrafted-Rookie-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/12\/Jets-Quarterback-Injury-Could-Open-the-Door-for-Undrafted-Rookie-1200x800.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 992px) 100vw, 992px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-257659\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oct 26, 2025; Cincinnati, Ohio, USA; New York Jets quarterback Brady Cook (4) high fives quarterback Justin Fields (7) before the game against the Cincinnati Bengals at Paycor Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Joseph Maiorana-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>Jets Expected to Cut $40 Million Bust Justin Fields &#8211; 3 Suitors for 2026 Season<\/h2>\n<p>It&#8217;s fair to say that the Jets won&#8217;t be a winning football team anytime soon, so the release would be doing Fields a favor. However, the fit isn&#8217;t there in New York, and it&#8217;s time for Fields to find his next team that could revitalize his career. Originally selected as a first-round pick, the former Ohio State product looked like the long-term answer for the Chicago Bears at the start of his career. After drafting Caleb Williams, the team dealt Fields to the Steelers, where he competed against <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/09\/09\/is-russell-wilsons-time-already-up\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">veteran Russell Wilson<\/a> for the starting quarterback job.<\/p>\n<p>The experiment didn&#8217;t work out in Pittsburgh either. Ultimately, the Steelers let Fields and Wilson hit the market while signing Aaron Rodgers to a one-year deal. It&#8217;s hard to tell what Fields future looks like as soon as he&#8217;s free on the market, but he should be able to garner some type of interest from these three teams.<\/p>\n<h2>Potential Next Teams<\/h2>\n<h3>Arizona Cardinals<\/h3>\n<p>The Arizona Cardinals have one of the most well-rounded football squads. However, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/12\/10\/could-kyler-murray-be-a-fit-on-the-jets\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Kyler Murray<\/a> hasn&#8217;t been able to stay on the same page for this offense, which a release could be likely in March. Jacoby Brissett won&#8217;t become the full-time starter for this football team as they&#8217;re expected to draft a quarterback. While they prepare the rookie for whoever steps in, they should find a temporary veteran to fill the hole in their depth chart.<\/p>\n<p>They can&#8217;t afford to waste James Conner, Marvin Harrison Jr. and Trey McBride as this offense is too talented. Fields isn&#8217;t going to put on an illustrious show, but he should be in a better environment in Arizona, and the Cardinals should take a chance at least on a one-year deal.<\/p>\n<h3>Carolina Panthers<\/h3>\n<p>Meanwhile, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/story\/_\/id\/47504478\/panthers-win-nfc-south-make-playoffs-falcons-edge-saints\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Carolina Panthers have snuck themselves into a wild-card<\/a>. This doesn&#8217;t mean Bryce Young&#8217;s job is necessarily safe. Carolina isn&#8217;t committing to Young just yet, once the season is over for them. With Andy Dalton getting too old, they must find a fresh, veteran quarterback to develop into a potential starter. Fields will have to compete for the job again, but it gives Young a challenge and depth to lean on if Dave Canales feels like Fields is the future over Young.<\/p>\n<h3>Los Angeles Rams<\/h3>\n<p>While <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/11\/23\/baker-mayfield-must-fix-one-flaw-to-outduel-matthew-stafford\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Matthew Stafford<\/a> is on fire, the future of the veteran will be predicated on how the playoffs go. If the Rams lose early, there could be speculation again on what Stafford wants to do. After losing to the Eagles in last year&#8217;s postseason, the team almost lost Stafford to retirement before signing a new contract. If Stafford leaves, Head Coach Sean McVay has the brains to get something out of Fields to battle it out for the starting role.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The New York Jets are likely to part ways with their offensive starter after a year of misery and these three teams could sign him. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4795,"featured_media":261665,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[36,33,30,34,6,6431],"tags":[7801,9487,7739,6990,4674,7473,404,7330,7661,237],"class_list":["post-261664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl-news","category-cardinals","category-panthers","category-rams","category-jets","category-nfl-teams","tag-arizona-cardinals-news","tag-bryce-young","tag-carolina-panthers-news","tag-justin-fields","tag-kyler-murray","tag-los-angeles-rams-news","tag-matthew-stafford","tag-new-york-jets-news","tag-panthers-featured","tag-russell-wilson"],"modified_by":"Anthony Palacios","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4795"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261664"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261664\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":261672,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261664\/revisions\/261672"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}