Woody Johnson has owned the New York Jets since 2000. In the 25 years since, the franchise has won just one AFC East title, hasn’t made the playoffs since 2010, and is almost sure to have its 10th consecutive losing season this year.
Many coaches and players have come and gone over that time, but the one constant is Johnson. Still, the owner recently decided to throw his current quarterback, Justin Fields, under the bus as the reason for their current misery.
“It’s hard when you have a quarterback with the rating that we’ve got,” Johnson said from league meetings in Manhattan. “I mean, he has the ability, but something is just not jiving. If you look at any head coach with a quarterback like that, you’re going to see similar results across the league. You have to play consistently at that position.”
That comment made for a pretty rough week for Fields, whose head coach had to defend him from questions about potential benching.
Fields put his head down this week and ended up leading the Jets to their first win of the season, a 39-38 battle against the Cincinnati Bengals. Fields went 21 of 32 for 244 passing yards, one passing touchdown, and a two-point conversion that turned out to be the difference.
Afterward, a very candid Fields shared how difficult it was to focus after Johnson’s comments, then sent a message of his own to the team owner.
“It’s been a lot for me emotionally, spiritually. When I was on the field, I was damn near about to start crying, not because we won but because of the goodness of God.”
Fields continues, “I’m going to get pretty vulnerable right here. This week I found myself in my closet… pic.twitter.com/WrmgPUfmOc
— Jets Videos (@snyjets) October 26, 2025
“It’s been a lot for me emotionally, spiritually. When I was on the field, I was damn near about to start crying, not because we won but because of the goodness of God,” Fields said. “Everything I’ve been through this past week, everything that we’ve been through as a team these past seven weeks, it was a lot of ups and downs, and I got a lot of support from my teammates, from my brothers, from my family, from my friends, and most of all I’m just thankful.” Fields said. “Yesterday I started praying, praying like crazy, just for a win.
“I’m going to get pretty vulnerable right here,” Fields continued. “This week I found myself in my closet crying on the ground, lying down. Not because of the hardships, not because of the troubles. I felt like I was built to handle that … Yesterday I was just praying over and over and over again, just one win.”
“… That’s outside noise at the end of the day. I get that he’s the owner of the team, but that’s outside noise. The biggest thing was my teammates believing in me and my coaches still believing in me.”
“That’s outside noise at the end of the day. I get that he’s the owner of the team, but it’s outside noise.”
Justin Fields on Woody Johnson’s criticisms of his game: pic.twitter.com/QjFT2RwY4v
— Jets Videos (@snyjets) October 26, 2025
Perhaps Johnson will spin this as proof that his motivation worked, but there’s something very Jets about the best moment of their season so far, also acting as a rebuke of the guy who owns the team.
One thing that’s for sure is that the current players (and potential free agents) will remember how he threw his quarterback under the bus, regardless of what happened next.