Leading the New York Jets to their first win of the season, quarterback Justin Fields did not mince his words when addressing owner Woody Johnson’s public criticism of him.
After seven straight losses to open the 2025-26 NFL season, Johnson offered a scathing criticism of Fields entering a Week 8 matchup against the Cincinnati Bengals.
“It’s hard when you have a quarterback with the rating that we’ve got,” Johnson said publicly. “He has the ability, but something is not jiving.
“If we can just complete a pass, it would look good,” Johnson also said of the Jets offense’s failure to launch this season.
It was a rare open critique from an owner of the quarterback position and ultimately bulletin board material for Fields.
In a 39-38 comeback victory over the Bengals on Oct. 26, Fields completed 21 of 32 passes for 244 yards and a touchdown while also adding another touchdown on the ground.
Fields addressed Johnson’s criticism after the game, calling it “outside noise.”
“That’s outside noise at the end of the day,” Fields said in a postgame news conference. “I get that he’s the owner of the team, but it’s outside noise.” He added, “The biggest thing was my teammates believing in me and my coaches believing in me.”
It was an emotional week for the former Chicago Bears first-round pick, who is on his third team in as many seasons.
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“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.
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“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.”
Time will tell if Fields and head coach Aaron Glenn can start stacking more wins after breaking through in Week 8.
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