As expected, Justin Fields‘ time in Recent York is coming to an end. A trade has been worked out which can send him from the Jets to the Chiefs, as first reported by ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
This trade will include a late-round pick swap. The Jets are dealing Fields and a seventh-round pick to the Chiefs in exchange for a sixth-round pick, Ian Rapoport of NFL Network notes. The sixth-rounder is within the 2027 draft, per colleague Tom Pelissero.
Recent York is retaining salary to facilitate this deal, SNY’s Connor Hughes reports. Per Pelissero, the Jets are taking up $7MM of the $10MM Fields was already guaranteed for the 2026 season. That may make him an economical backup for the Chiefs, a team in need of insurance under center. Patrick Mahomes continues to get well from an ACL tear, leaving his Week 1 availability in query.
Gardner Minshew was in place as Kansas City’s backup, but he departed last week by agreeing to a free agent take care of the Cardinals. Fields will now have the option to handle first-team reps through the offseason while Mahomes recovers. Other teams were concerned about the previous Bear and Steeler, per Schefter. He adds, nevertheless, that Fields’ preference was to hitch the Chiefs. With an instantaneous path to practice time in place with respect to Kansas City, that comes as no surprise.
For the Jets, a Fields departure was made much more likely once a reunion with Geno Smith was worked out. Recent York traded for Smith last week, and his contract was also reworked as a part of the deal. The Jets will only be chargeable for $3.3MM of Smith’s compensation for 2026. Paying out a bigger figure has allowed for a parting of how in Fields’ case, something which seemed inevitable once his transient tenure atop the depth chart got here to an end.
The previous first-rounder secured $30MM guaranteed on a two-year free agent deal last spring. Fields served as Recent York’s starter for nine games, averaging lower than 140 passing yards per game with a career-low 6.2 yards per attempt average. He managed 383 yards and 4 scores on the bottom, but Fields and the Jets’ passing game was the topic of public criticism from owner Woody Johnson before head coach Aaron Glenn decided to bench him. Tyrod Taylor and Brady Cook saw time afterwards; Taylor is unsigned but Cook and Bailey Zappe are still in place for the Jets.
The cap savings ($11MM) and dead money charges ($12MM) generated by this trade
More to come back…