The New York Jets have agreed to trade quarterback Justin Fields to the Kansas City Chiefs, according to team and league sources. The Jets will receive a 2027 sixth-round pick from Kansas City while eating most of his 2026 salary.
The Jets will pay all but $3 million of Fields’ $10 million guaranteed salary for 2026 — saving them more money than if they had simply released him. They are moving forward with Geno Smith as their starting quarterback after acquiring him in a trade with the Las Vegas Raiders last week; Smith is making his return to the franchise that drafted him in 2013.
This should be viewed as a prudent move by Jets general manager Darren Mougey. They held on to Fields and drummed up trade interest in a market light on talented quarterbacks, and ended up getting a draft pick and salary-cap savings in exchange for a player they were not planning to keep.
The move continues the Chiefs’ revolving door of backup quarterbacks behind Patrick Mahomes, and there’s a possibility Fields could start games early in the season as Mahomes recovers from a torn ACL suffered on Dec. 14. Though he said in January he’s targeting a Week 1 return, any setback could put that timeline in jeopardy.
The Chiefs have had a different understudy behind Mahomes each of the last four seasons: Chad Henne, Blaine Gabbert, Carson Wentz and Gardner Minshew. Last week, Minshew agreed to a one-year free-agent contract with the Arizona Cardinals. The Chiefs also signed former New Orleans Saints quarterback Jake Haener last month.
Fields signed with the Jets in March 2025 and stepped in as the team’s starter but struggled in New York. His season got off to a roaring start with one of the best games of his career in Week 1, against a Steelers team that had let him walk away in free agency. He completed 16 of 22 passes for 218 yards and one touchdown and rushed for 48 yards and two touchdowns in a thrilling 34-32 loss.
However, Fields failed to maintain that level of play. In four of his nine starts, he failed to register 100 passing yards. He was benched multiple times, and at one point in October, owner Woody Johnson publicly blamed Fields for the Jets’ 0-7 start. A week later, Fields led the Jets to the first win of the Glenn era, over the Bengals, and admitted that he cried in his closet before the game, coming at the end of an emotional week.
Fields started two more games after that, and wasn’t active after admitting to reporters that he wasn’t particularly fond of the idea of subbing in as a backup in a Taysom Hill-type role because of the risk of injury.
Fields spent his first three NFL seasons with the Chicago Bears, who selected him with the 11th pick of the 2021 NFL Draft. One month before selecting Caleb Williams with the first pick of the 2024 draft, the Bears traded Fields to the Pittsburgh Steelers for a conditional sixth-round pick. Fields went 4-2 as a starter for the Steelers in 2024 before giving way to Russell Wilson.