New York Jets bench struggling quarterback Justin Fields for Tyrod Taylor, AP source says

Justin Fields is heading to the bench and Tyrod Taylor is replacing him as the New York Jets' starting quarterback.

Coach Aaron Glenn decided to play Taylor over the embattled Fields at Baltimore on Sunday, a person with knowledge of the decision told The Associated Press on Monday.

Glenn said last week he would evaluate all positions over the weekend, leaving the door open for a change at quarterback. And he decided to make the switch to Taylor, according to the person who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the team didn’t announce the move, which was first reported by The Athletic.

Glenn told the team of his decision during a meeting Monday morning, when the Jets returned to work after a few days off.

“Yeah, I’m not gonna go into too much detail,” tight end Jeremy Ruckert said. “Coach talked to us as a team today and told us that we’re gonna get ready to go play this weekend. So just leave all questions for that towards him.”

The Jets (2-8) are coming off a 27-14 loss at New England last Thursday night. Fields’ subpar play has been a major reason for the struggles of the passing offense, which ranks last in the NFL with 139.9 yards per game — 20 fewer than 31st-ranked Cleveland.

Fields was 15 of 26 for 116 yards and a touchdown against the Patriots, but he had only 23 yards passing at halftime. Dropped passes, including two by Adonai Mitchell in his Jets debut, contributed to the lack of production. That performance came after Fields was 6 of 11 for just 54 yards with a TD and an interception in New York’s 27-20 win over Cleveland.

“That's my guy,” said Ruckert, who also was a teammate of Fields at Ohio State. "It stinks to be a part of the (demotion). I take it personal, all the hate, all the talking that goes toward him. I take it personal because I’m one of the guys that takes the field with him. And I wish we could do a better job to help him out, but he’s just a true professional, like I say every day. Not going to change how I feel about him.

“I'm sure he'll be ready to go when his time's come.”

Glenn, who was not scheduled to speak to reporters again until Wednesday, has been tight-lipped on his quarterback situation and refused the last few weeks to announce who his starter would be.

It appeared likely the 36-year-old Taylor would take over under center against Cincinnati on Oct. 26, but the veteran backup was ruled out with a knee injury and didn't travel with the team. Instead, Fields thrived after what he said was an “emotional” week that included owner Woody Johnson publicly criticizing him, leading the Jets to their first win of the season, 39-38 against the Bengals.

He was 21 of 32 for 244 yards and a touchdown in that victory, along with 31 yards on 11 rushes. He also threw a pass and had a run for 2-point conversions. The Jets hoped that was a turning point-type game for Fields.

But the struggles reappeared in the next two games — and the calls from frustrated fans to bench Fields grew louder. Glenn said last Friday that Fields did some good things at New England but also acknowledged he missed a few opportunities to make plays.

“I think you hear that quite a bit when you get these quarterback changes is, ‘Man, I’m trying to get a spark for the team,’” Glenn said. “But to me, it’s more or less, man, I’m trying to make the best decision to give our guys a chance to win because to me, a spark is really a short-term deal. And I don’t know if this is what other coaches’ decisions are, but, man, I want to make a decision to give us a chance to win.”

The 26-year-old Fields started nine of the first 10 games this season, missing one because of a concussion, after signing a two-year, $40 million contract in the offseason. The deal included $30 million in guaranteed money, a sign the Jets were optimistic Fields could thrive in new offensive coordinator Tanner Engstrand's system after failed stints in Chicago — where he was a first-round pick in 2021 — and last year in Pittsburgh.

Fields was mostly underwhelming during training camp, but he was solid in the season-opening loss against Pittsburgh when he threw for 218 yards and a touchdown and ran for two scores. But he was inconsistent over the next several games and threw for less than 55 yards in four starts.

For the season, Fields has passed for 1,259 yards — an average of just 140 yards per game — with seven touchdowns and one interception. He is the team's second-leading rusher behind Breece Hall with 383 yards and his four rushing TDs lead the Jets.

The game at Baltimore will mark the 60th NFL start of Taylor's 15-year career. He was 26 of 36 for 197 yards and two TDs with one interception in his lone start this season, a 29-27 loss at Tampa Bay. Taylor most recently played on Oct. 19 against Carolina, when Fields was benched at halftime. Taylor finished 10 of 22 for 126 yards with two INTs in the 13-6 loss.

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New York Jets quarterback Justin Fields fumbles the ball during the second half of an NFL football game against the New England Patriots, Thursday, Nov. 13, 2025, in Foxborough, Mass. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

New York Jets' Tyrod Taylor warms up ahead of an NFL football game against the New England Patriots, Thursday, Nov. 13, 2025, in Foxborough, Mass. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

New York Jets quarterback Justin Fields reacts during the second half of an NFL football game against the New England Patriots, Thursday, Nov. 13, 2025, in Foxborough, Mass. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

ATLANTA (AP) — A historical marker from the site of a 1918 lynching that was repeatedly vandalized in recent years is now safely on display in Atlanta in an exhibit that opens Monday.

It memorializes an event that some people in rural southern Georgia have tried hard to erase: the killing of Mary Turner by a white mob that was bent on silencing her after she demanded justice for the lynching of her husband, Hayes Turner, and at least 10 other Black people.

Pocked with bullet holes and cracked at its pedestal by an off-road vehicle, the Georgia Historical Society marker reads in part: “Mary Turner, eight months pregnant, was burned, mutilated, and shot to death by a mob after publicly denouncing her husband’s lynching the previous day. … No charges were ever brought against known or suspected participants in these crimes. From 1880-1930, as many as 550 people were killed in Georgia in these illegal acts of mob violence.”

Now each word damaged by bullets is projected on a wall, and visitors hear those words spoken by some of Turner’s six generations of descendants.

“I’m glad the memorial was shot up,” great-granddaughter Katrina Thomas said Saturday night after her first look at the exhibit in the National Museum for Civil and Human Rights. “Millions of people are going to learn her story. That her voice is continuing years and years after, it shows history does not disappear. It lives and continues to grow.”

Americans learned about these lynchings in 1918 because they were investigated in the immediate aftermath by Walter White, who founded the Georgia chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and would become an influential voice for civil rights nationwide. A light-skinned Black man who could pass for white, he interviewed eyewitnesses and provided names of suspects to the governor of Georgia, according to his report in the NAACP’s publication, The Crisis.

Georgia was among the most active states for lynchings, according to the Equal Justice Initiative ’s catalog of more than 4,400 documented racial terror lynchings in the U.S. between Reconstruction and World War II. The organization has placed markers at many sites and built a monument to the victims in Montgomery, Alabama.

The nation’s first anti-lynching legislation was introduced in 1918 amid national reaction to deaths of Mary and Hayes Turner and their neighbors in Georgia's Brooks and Lowndes counties. It passed the House in 1922, but Southern senators filibustered it and another century would pass before lynching was made a federal hate crime in 2022.

“The same injustice that took her life was the same injustice that kept vandalizing it, year after year,” said Randy McClain, the Turners’ great-grandnephew. He grew up in the same rural area where the lynchings happened but did not know much about them or discover his family connection until he was an adult.

“Here it feels like a very safe space,” McClain said. “She's now finally at rest, and her story can be told. And her family can feel some sense of vindication.”

Closeup showing bullet holes in a Georgia Historic Marker memorializing the 1918 lynching of Mary Turner, now on display at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, on Dec. 6, 2025 in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Michael Warren)

Katrina Thomas, a great-granddaughter of Mary Turner, who was lynched in 1918, poses with her historic marker at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, on Dec. 6, 2025 in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Michael Warren)

Descendants of Mary Turner, who was lynched in 1918, pose with her historic marker and artist Lonnie Holley, fourth from left, at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, on Dec. 6, 2025 in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Michael Warren)