When Justin Fields signed his deal in New York, all eyes went straight to him. Aaron Glenn made it clear from jump: “He is a dynamic player and I think there’s more we can get out of that.” Translation? Fields is the guy now. But that didn’t mean the Jets forgot about their rookie QB, who has been grinding in the shadows since 2023…
Well, that was until Wednesday’s news dropped like a gut punch. Jordan Travis, just 24, is officially retiring from football. The Jets didn’t sugarcoat it. Neither did he. After spending the past year rehabbing the brutal left leg injury he suffered against North Alabama back in November 2023, Travis was told by doctors that returning just wasn’t in the cards. “Despite all my efforts, my leg never responded the way we hoped,” Travis said in a statement. “I’ve been medically advised to retire from the game I love so deeply.”
It was a quiet end to what once looked like the perfect underdog script. Travis was a fifth-round pick in 2024. But no one ever got fooled by his draft stock. Instead, everyone, at the time, said that if not for the injury, he would have been out a lot earlier. Travis had serious juice. Before the injury, he was torching college defenses and leading Florida State to an 11-0 record. He finished fifth in the Heisman voting, threw for over 8,600 yards, and stacked 99 total touchdowns. You don’t luck into numbers like that.
Still, numbers couldn’t save his leg. After being placed on the Non-Football Injury list last summer, Travis never made it back to full speed. The Jets gave him space to work, and he gave everything he had. “It is unfortunate that he was unable to get back on the field after working so hard,” said Jets GM Darren Mougey. “We support his decision and wish him only the best.”
Travis walks away as one of the winningest quarterbacks in Florida State history and the first ‘Nole to beat Miami three times. For the Jets, this wasn’t just about depth. It was about believing in a guy who kept swinging long after the cameras stopped rolling. That’s just who Jordan Travis was—and always will be.
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