The $40 million contract the New York Jets handed quarterback Justin Fields during the 2025 offseason continues to look worse and worse.
The Jets inked Fields to a two-year, $40 million deal with $30 million guaranteed in free agency and made him the starter, even though there were plenty of red flags that the veteran signal-caller wasn't going to be worth the money.
Fields struggled with the Chicago Bears before the team unloaded him in a trade to the Pittsburgh Steelers during the 2024 offseason.
The Steelers signed Russell Wilson, also, and named him the starter, but Fields started the first six games while Wilson recovered from an injury.
Despite the Steelers getting off to a 4-2 start with Fields under center, the team turned to Wilson once he was healthy in the hopes that he could provide an upgrade, as Fields was anything but great in his six starts.
Further cementing the fact that the Steelers weren't impressed with Fields was the fact that the team never went back to him, even when Wilson and Pittsburgh's offense struggled mightily down the stretch of the campaign.
Fast forward to 2025 and, outside of a few games, Fields has been terrible, and so much so the Jets are now benching him in favor of Tyrod Taylor, according to The Athletic's Dianna Russini and Zack Rosenblatt.
This now sets the stage for the Jets to cut Fields in 2026, barring the team hanging on to him as a bridge quarterback after they draft a young signal-caller.
Here's how much that will cost.
Justin Fields contract details
Fields' two-year, $40 million contract has a whopping $30 million guaranteed, so the Jets aren't getting out of paying that latter sum.
According to Over The Cap, if the Jets cut Fields with a pre-June 1 designation next year, they'll take on a dead-cap hit of $22 million and will only save $1 million.
Because there are void years in the deal to help spread out the money, New York will also be on the hook for dead-cap hits of $9 million in 2027 and $6 million in 2028 and $3 million in 2029 in that scenario.
If cut with a post-June 1 designation, New York will take on a $13 million dead-cap figure while saving $10 million in cap space in 2026. Fields will account for dead-cap hits of $3 million for each year from 2027 through 2029.
If the Jets were to trade Fields pre-June 1, they would absorb a dead-cap charge of $12 million and would save $11 million in 2026. The dead-cap hits in this scenario are the same as cutting him pre-June 1.
A post June-1 trade would give the Jets $3 million dead-cap charges from 2026 through 2029 while saving $20 million in 2026 and $6 million in 2027.
However, we would point out that there is no way a team is going to trade for Fields without the Jets picking up all of that money, so we can wipe the trade scenarios off the table.
The Jets are slated to have $99.2 million in cap space in 2026, so they have the space to absorb the dead-cap figure from the pre-June 1 cut.
However, chances are New York will take the post-June 1 cut option if they do decide to part ways with Fields.
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