Justin Fields said Tuesday he “considered” a return to Pittsburgh. Instead, he signed with the Jets.
The Steelers signed Aaron Rodgers, who played for the Jets last season.
So, it’s no coincidence that the NFL has the Steelers and Jets opening the season against each other Sunday.
“There’s no storyline for me,” Fields said, via Rich Cimini of ESPN. “It’s ball for me, so I’ll let you guys kind of handle the storylines, the news lines and stuff like that. In the locker room, we just keep it straight ball.”
Fields’ only encounters with Rodgers have come in postgame quarterback handshakes when they were in the same division, and Fields said he once exchanged jerseys with Rodgers. The players swapped teams in the offseason, with the Jets choosing to move on from Rodgers, and Fields choosing to turn down the Steelers and head to the Jets.
Rodgers now is on his third team in four years and Fields on his third in three years.
Fields is not sweating another meeting against the four-time league MVP in what is his Jets debut.
“Cool, calm, collected,” Fields said, describing his mentality.
Fields went 4-2 as the Steelers starter last season before the team replaced him with Russell Wilson. He threw only one pass the rest of the season.
Fields, though, said he has no ill feelings toward the Steelers.
“No, not at all,” Fields said. “Like I told you guys before, I’m a big believer in everything happens for a reason. I was in a spot last year where I was able to see the game from a different perspective. I learned a lot from Russ and just all the other vets there, so not at all.”
Aaron Glenn has spurned Aaron Rodgers-related questions since he took the job in February, and in one of his first moves, his decision to move on from the star quarterback. The Jets first-year head coach again brushed off questions about Rodgers ahead of their meeting on the field Sunday.
“It’s not relevant to right now,” Glenn said, via Rich Cimini of ESPN.
Rodgers spent two years in New York, playing only four plays in 2023 before a season-ending Achilles injury. The Jets went 5-12 with Rodgers last season as he passed for 3,897 yards and threw 28 touchdowns.
The Jets opted to sign Justin Fields in free agency, while Rodgers left for Pittsburgh.
Rodgers has criticized Glenn for how he handled the decision, with Rodgers complaining of having to fly cross country on his “own dime” to hear the news.
“That’s been gone, so I’m not going to answer questions about guys that aren’t here and what I saw,” Glenn said Tuesday. “Right now, I’m looking at what our guys can do.”
Glenn watched every offensive play from 2024, with Rodgers at quarterback for 97 percent of those, and he probably rewatched them since to prepare for Rodgers this week. But Glenn would not bite on what he has seen from the four-time league MVP.
“Just like I said, I’m not going to sit there and answer questions on what I saw back then,” Glenn said.
Glenn, though, did call Rodgers “a future Hall of Famer, we all know that, so he’s going to cause problems no matter what.”
Jets cornerback Sauce Gardner says he’s on track to play against former teammate Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers on Sunday.
Gardner was sidelined by a calf injury in recent practices, but he was back on the field with the rest of the team for Tuesday’s workout. Gardner later told reporters that he feels ready to go for the team’s Week 1 home game against Pittsburgh.
The Jets also had backup quarterback Tyrod Taylor on the field Tuesday. Taylor had knee surgery during training camp and head coach Aaron Glenn said last week that he expects Taylor to be ready to go for the opener.
Left guard John Simpson, who has been dealing with a back injury, made it a trio of returning players. The Jets do not issue their first injury report of the week until Wednesday, so official participation levels will have to wait until that comes out.
The Steelers will open the season without their first-round draft pick.
Steelers coach Mike Tomlin confirmed today that rookie defensive lineman Derrick Harmon will not play in the season opener against the Jets.
Harmon suffered a knee injury in a preseason game and had to be carted off the field with what first appeared to be a very significant injury but has since been termed a sprain that should only keep him out for a few weeks.
Tomlin said Steelers linebacker Nick Herbig is viewed as questionable for Week One but there’s optimism he should be good to go after he had a good day of practice yesterday. Tomlin says no one else on the Steelers’ 53-player roster is expected to be on the injury report for Week One.
The impact was devastating. But the hit was clean.
If anyone blames former Jets linebacker Mo Lewis for blowing up Patriots quarterback Drew Bledsoe and opening the door to the Tom Brady era, they shouldn’t.
Lewis, for his part, blames Bledsoe.
Via Rich Cimini of ESPN.com, Lewis finally addressed the matter for the new book from Gary Myers, Brady vs. Belichick.
"[Bledsoe] just signed a $100 million deal to be what type of quarterback?” Lewis told Myers. “A passing quarterback, correct? Had he not got outside the pocket and ran with the ball, would we be talking about this? Who caused the event? The person who was with the ball.
“Now he’s doing what he didn’t sign up for. He signed up to be a passing quarterback. What do I do? I stop the people with the ball. It’s just another play for me. But it’s a different play for him.”
As explained by Cimini, Lewis has avoided the spotlight since retiring. Former teammates say Lewis feels slighted because he’s remembered only for the hit on Bledsoe.
“It’s really irrelevant to me,” Lewis told Myers. “It was just another play to me. To you all, it’s a big game-changing, history-changing play. I’ve never gone back to watch the play. If people want to talk about it, I don’t hide from it. But it has no importance to me.”
Lewis is right about the play. Watch it. Bledsoe leaves the pocket. He runs along the sideline. He seems to consider going out of bounds. He decides to try to gain a first down.
Lewis didn’t go in head first. He lowered a shoulder and put it into Bledsoe’s side. It was legal and clean.
He said he didn’t check on Bledsoe because he didn’t think anything of it.
“I’m not trying to be an asshole,” Lewis said. “I’m on the field. I’m not a doctor. I do not know the severity of that hit. It was just another hit. I’m a linebacker. I make tackles. I do not gauge how hard or how soft I hit a person. What you’re trying to do is make me see the future after the hit. I’m telling you, I’m not looking down the line. I’m just trying to stop him from getting a first down. Period.”
He should have said “exclamation point.” Because he’s right. Lewis did his job. Bledsoe put himself in harm’s way. He could have gone out of bounds. He could have slid. He could have fallen down.
Bledsoe took the hit. If he’d known what the consequences would be, he surely wouldn’t have done it.
That’s the real takeaway from the episode that happened nearly 24 years ago. Quarterbacks who take hits they don’t have to take are assuming the risk that the hit could, as it did for Bledsoe, shear a blood vessel in his chest and open the door for the next man up.
And if the next man up is good enough, the quarterback who took the hit may remain out long after he has healed.
