The newest quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs, Justin Fields, was acquired via trade this spring. The New York Jets sent Fields to Kansas City in exchange for a 2027 sixth-round pick, and paid $8 million of the $11 million total Fields is slated to make in 2026.
Not only did New York help the Chiefs feasibly fit Fields on the team’s roster, but the Jets also worked with the quarterback on finding the right organization to be his next stop. With quarterback Patrick Mahomes recovering from tearing his ACL and LCL, Kansas City became a targeted destination for the former first-round pick.
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Fields revealed that thought process when talking to reporters during a video press conference on Tuesday at the Chiefs’ facility. He specifically pointed to quarterback Patrick Mahomes and head coach Andy Reid as factors in his decision to “choose” Kansas City.
“I didn’t talk to any [Chiefs] coaches before choosing to come here,” Fields said. “I wanted to come here because of the culture, because of Pat, and to learn from him, and learn from Coach Reid.”
Fields followed that statement by shrugging off the perception that the team brought him in as anything but a quarterback.
“I didn’t talk about whether I was going to be a gadget guy or quarterback,” Fields told reporters. ”I kind of just assumed… I knew the situation with Pat.”
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On Monday, Reid backed up Fields as the 53-game NFL starting quarterback he is.
“I mentioned at the owner meetings,” Reid recalled, “that we didn’t bring him to be a gadget guy — although he can do every gadget there is. We didn’t bring him in to do that. We brought it in [because] he’s a legitimate quarterback — a starting quarterback — in the National Football League, and we’re lucky enough to have him here. If that’s the role that he plays early in the season, we have full confidence that he can do a great job with that.”
With no assurance on when Mahomes will be able to return as the full-go starter by Week 1, Fields has an opportunity to play a key role for the 2026 Chiefs in some capacity.
He is a talented player, but Kansas City will be his fourth team at just 27 years old, so learning on the fly is not new to the sixth-year pro.
“I’ve had a lot of coaches and have been in a lot of different offenses as well,“ Fields reflected. ”Seeing the different schemes… learning the mindset… I’ve learned a lot, and I’m expecting to learn here.”
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While it is early in Phase 1 of his first offseason with the Chiefs — too early to have even received a playbook, according to Fields — he has already felt the winning culture that has produced three Super Bowl titles.
“Being here for two days, you can tell why that happens,” Fields said about the success of the organization. “Just the mindset of the coaches, the players, the fact that 99% of the guys are here right now just shows you what kind of team we’re going to be this year, and it just shows you the want and the mindset each guy has on the team here.”
As his MVP teammate in the quarterback room is working to return, Fields has made sure to begin the studying part of being Mahomes’ understudy.
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“I’m already kind of picking his brain a little bit and just observing how he goes about things in the meeting room and on the field,” Fields shared.
Nobody in Chiefs Kingdom wants to see Fields start a game during his time in Kansas City, and it has nothing to do with him. If that is his role to start the 2026 season, it gives him a chance to show not only Chiefs fans, but the football world how much he has learned from two of the sport’s current icons in Mahomes and Reid.
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