NY Jets’ perfect formula for Justin Fields revolves around one word

Thirty NFL quarterbacks have started a game so far in Week 1 of the 2025 season.

The league leader in EPA (Expected Points Added) per dropback?

That would be New York Jets quarterback Justin Fields, who posted an astronomical 0.49 EPA per dropback against a talented and experienced Pittsburgh Steelers defense – one that is familiar with his tendencies, no less.

Yes, a Jets quarterback is the most efficient signal caller in the NFL right now.

Yeah, yeah – it’s just one week, and the Jets still lost the game. But Jets fans should revel in this, because they haven’t seen anything quite like it before.

No, really.

Justin Fields’ unprecedented Jets ceiling

Fields’ 0.49 EPA per dropback is not only the NFL’s best of Week 1 thus far, but it is the strongest mark posted by a Jets quarterback since Mike White’s explosion against the Bears in Week 12 of the 2022 season (+0.64).

White, though, was a solidified backup with very limited tools, and his performance came against a dismal Bears defense that allowed the most points in the NFL that year. Fields is a talented 26-year-old with a high-first-round pedigree, and his game was against a loaded Steelers defense. Fields’ performance can be built upon and is less likely to be a flash in the pan than White’s, so there’s no debating which one was more promising.

In fact, this one game was all Fields needed to showcase a higher ceiling than the Jets’ previous three hopeful franchise quarterbacks. Fields’ 0.49 EPA per dropback is already better than the personal bests of Zach Wilson (+0.40, Week 16 of 2021 vs. Jaguars), Sam Darnold (+0.48, Week 16 of 2018 vs. Packers), and Aaron Rodgers (+0.45, Week 3 of 2024 vs. Patriots) in their Jets careers.

You read that right: In one game, Fields has surpassed the combined peak of Darnold, Wilson, and Rodgers across their 99 starts with the Jets.

Simply put, the Jets have not seen this type of potential at the quarterback position in… maybe ever, considering the athletic upside Fields possesses compared to any Jets quarterback to come before him.

Nobody could have seen this type of explosion coming from Fields in his Jets debut, not even the most devout Fields truthers in the Twittersphere. In fact, yours truly would have told you to seek assistance if you described this performance as a premonition from your dreams. I predicted Fields to finish the 2025 season with a passer rating that would have ranked 29th in the NFL last year, one spot ahead of Cooper Rush.

Fields and the Jets’ offense forced many of us to eat our words on Sunday. The offensive linemen blocked their tails off, Breece Hall looked to be back in peak form, and the Jets’ pass catchers came to play. For one week, they proved everyone wrong.

Most importantly, though, first-year offensive coordinator Tanner Engstrand pitched a gem of a game against the hard-hitting sluggers who make up Pittsburgh’s seasoned defensive coaching staff. Engstrand unveiled a beautiful script of a game plan that succeeded in keeping Pittsburgh on its toes and allowing New York’s offense to remain consistent for four quarters.

The rookie OC’s game plan was tailor-made to unleash the strengths of New York’s gifted quarterback. While it succeeded for many reasons, the goals of Engstrand’s scheme can all be boiled down to one word: balance.

It’s something Fields was unable to strike across the first four years of his career. But Engstrand’s offense allowed him to find it on Sunday. The result was the peak version of Fields, featuring all of the good stuff he offers with very little of the bad stuff.

If Fields sustains his Sunday performance for 17 games, it will be because he continues to manage a delicate balance between his Chicago and Pittsburgh forms, yielding the final evolution we saw in his Jets debut.

Fields’ Chicago form: Explosive, but far too reckless

In Chicago, Fields was a highlight-reel machine. The Bears let him use his arm strength and athleticism to the full extent, leading to a plethora of big-time plays.

During his three seasons with the Bears (2021-23), Fields had 73 rushes for 10+ yards, which ranked second among quarterbacks and was sixth among all players. He ran for 10+ yards once every 4.9 rush attempts, an unfathomably frequent rate.

As a passer, the Bears let Fields chuck bombs galore. His average completion in Chicago yielded 11.5 yards, placing seventh-highest among 41 quarterbacks over that span. He ranked right between Jalen Hurts and Russell Wilson.

The consequence of this playstyle was that Fields was a negative-play factory. Chicago gave him the freedom to let loose and play backyard football, causing him to become reckless and inconsistent.

This could be seen in many areas. Among 41 qualified quarterbacks from 2021 to 2023, Fields ranked last in sack rate (12.4%), last in fumbles (38), 40th in interception rate (3.1%), and 39th in passing success rate (37.8%). His high-end plays were vastly outweighed by his propensity for negative plays and his inconsistency from down to down.

Fields’ Pittsburgh form: Safer and more consistent, but costing his explosiveness

In Pittsburgh, we saw a version of Fields that was completely different than the one we saw across his body of work in Chicago.

Since Pittsburgh knows it can rely on its defense to win games, the Steelers reined Fields in. They coached him to play like a game manager, and they built their system around him to facilitate that goal.

It led to some positive results in critical areas.

Most importantly, Fields protected the ball better than ever before. In six starts, Fields threw just one interception and lost one fumble. While he was lucky to have some turnover-worthy throws and fumbles go unpunished, it still would have been the least turnover-prone season of his career if you tacked on a few more turnovers.

Fields also set career-highs in completion percentage (65.8%) and passing success rate (42.9%). He took the lowest sack rate of his career at 9.0%, although it was still seventh-worst out of 43 quarterbacks.

Overall, though, this version of Fields was good enough for the Steelers to win games. They went 4-2 in his starts. And it wasn’t completely because of the defense. The Fields-led offense was solid, scoring 2.07 points per drive (which would have ranked 15th-best in 2024).

However, for Fields to morph into his new game manager form, he had to sacrifice the special playmaking that made him a first-round pick.

In Pittsburgh, Fields averaged career lows in yards per completion (10.4) and yards per rush attempt (4.7).

Fields’ highlight-reel plays evaporated in both phases. After running for 10+ yards once every 4.9 attempts in Chicago, that rate ballooned to 7.8 with the Steelers. And after completing eight deep touchdown passes with the Bears in 2023 (eighth-best in the NFL), he only completed six deep passes in six games with the Steelers, with no touchdowns.

Fields’ ideal Jets form: The best of both worlds

It was only one game, so we still have to see if Fields can sustain it. But against the Steelers, Engstrand showcased a version of Fields that seamlessly marries his Chicago and Pittsburgh forms.

Fields carried over the game-management improvement he displayed in Pittsburgh last season. On Sunday, Fields had no fumbles, threw no interceptions, took only one sack, and had an astronomical passing success rate of 65.2%. He completed 72.7% of his passes and had an adjusted completion percentage of 88.9% after accounting for drops, batted passes, and throwaways.

What put Fields over the top is that he did not have to sacrifice his gifts to achieve those game-management goals. While protecting the ball, avoiding sacks, and keeping the offense consistently on-schedule, Fields got back to showing off the explosiveness that captivated Bears fans.

Fields delivered a beautiful 33-yard touchdown bomb to Garrett Wilson in the first quarter, already surpassing his total of deep touchdown passes as a Steeler. While that was the only deep pass Fields attempted in the game, he stayed aggressive downfield, going 5-of-6 on intermediate throws (10-19 yards downfield) for 80 yards. Fields threw 31.8% of his pass attempts over 10 yards downfield, up from 25.3% in Pittsburgh and even higher than his 28.2% rate in Chicago during the 2023 season.

This extended to the run game, where Fields was heavily featured. Through both their play calling and the mentality they coached Fields to play with, the Jets showed they are not afraid to let Fields be a playmaker in key situations. He finished with 12 rush attempts, already more than five of his six starts as a Steeler (his average was 9.2 per game). Fields’ legs came through in many critical spots, as he achieved a success rate of 66.7% on his rush attempts, up from 54.8% last season.

Fields was himself in Chicago, but he couldn’t manage a game. Fields started to learn how to manage a game in Pittsburgh, but at the cost of no longer being himself.

In his Jets debut, Fields expertly walked the tightrope of managing a football game and being himself while doing it. That’s the pinnacle of Fields’ potential, and Engstrand’s offense is designed to unleash it.

Can it be replicated on a weekly basis? That remains to be seen, but the intention of this offense is in the right place. It’s predicated upon helping Fields tap into the word that allows him to play like a star: balance.