Alex Smith eviscerates ‘cowardly’ Jets owner Woody Johnson over Justin Fields comments

Woody Johnson purchased the New York Jets in 2000. Since then, the franchise has never made the Super Bowl, won just one division title, hasn’t made the playoffs since 2010, and is likely to finish with a losing season for the 10th straight time.

Many coaches and players have come and gone over that time, but the one constant has been Johnson.

However, when asked why the Jets started this season 0-7, the owner recently threw his quarterback, Justin Fields, under the bus.

“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.”

Fields had a field day on Sunday, going 21 of 32 for 244 passing yards, one passing touchdown, and a two-point conversion that turned out to be the difference in a 39-38 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals. Afterward, Fields offered an emotional and candid look at how Johnson’s comments affected him and threw some shade of his own, saying it was “outside noise.”

Before the Jets garnered their first win of the season, Johnson had already received plenty of criticism from those in the NFL media over his comments. However, it was ESPN NFL analyst Alex Smith who offered up the most direct attack on the Jets owner, telling him that when it comes to the franchise’s reputation as a perennial loser, he should look in the mirror.

“Listen, this is absurd… It’s rock bottom, but it’s rock bottom because of [Johnson],” said Smith on Sunday NFL Countdown. “Listen, it is impossible to overcome dysfunctional ownership. This is the definition of it: Woody Johnson.

“How many head coaches and quarterbacks has this guy mowed through? How many of them were we going to… and he drove the bus over this kid right here. Listen, oh, Sam Darnold, he looks pretty good right now. Robert Salah, coaching his butt off in San Francisco. Aaron Rodgers, winning a lot of games all of a sudden. Hey, maybe the problem is you, Woody. Maybe we look in the mirror. You have the longest playoff drought in all of the NFL.

“It starts at the top, and it trickles down. This is cowardly. This is an owner that’s deflecting because his organization is terrible. He drove the bus over a 26-year-old quarterback, right over the back of him.”

Smith added that he wasn’t trying to say the Jets didn’t have on-field issues, especially given their overall record. However, the simple truth is that the only common denominator in the franchise’s miserable 21st century is Woody Johnson.