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New York Jets owner Woody Johnson has blamed Justin Fields for the team's nightmare 0-7 start in an astonishing public attack on his own quarterback.
Fields' arrival was supposed to mark the beginning of an exciting new chapter for the Jets, who signed the 26-year-old free agent after Aaron Glenn opted to move on from Aaron Rodgers, 41, in one of his first major decisions as head coach.
Though despite cutting their losses with the underwhelming Rodgers, things have gone from bad to worse under Glenn's leadership, with Sunday's loss to the Carolina Panthers meaning they are still winless after seven games.
Fans are already losing patience with Glenn as a result, yet he still has the full backing of much-maligned owner Johnson - who instead puts the Jets' struggles down to Fields.
When quizzed about his head coach at the NFL's Fall League Meeting in New York, the 78-year-old told reporters: 'It looks like he's turning around parts of it, [but] it's hard when you have a quarterback with the rating that we've got. He has the ability but something is just not jiving.
'If you look at any head coach with a quarterback like that, you're gonna see similar results across the league. You have to play consistently at that position, and that's what we're gonna try to do for the remainder of the season.'
New York Jets owner Woody Johnson (left) has blamed Justin Fields (right) for their 0-7 start
Fields has struggled at quarterback in recent games and was hooked in their most recent loss
Fields has endured a miserable few games at quarterback for the Jets, with the team's -10 net passing yards in the recent defeat to the Denver Broncos going down as the worst in the league since 1998.
The former Chicago Bears star completed 9 of his 17 passes for 45 yards and was sacked nine times in that loss, before going 6 of 12 for 46 yards with three sacks in the first two quarters of Sunday's latest shortcoming. He was replaced in the second half of that game by veteran understudy Tyrod Taylor.
'I think defense and special teams are doing better, the defense is pretty good. If we could just complete a pass, it would look good,' Johnson continued in another shot at Fields. 'You've got to convince them that you can do something, or it's hard to have a game that you can win.'
Glenn made the decision to hook his starter just one week after defending him passionately in a press conference when asked if he would consider dropping him.
'I don't think you just try to bench a player after having one true bad game,' he told reporters about Fields. 'Because I thought the other games he played fairly well.'
However, following their setback against the Panthers, Glenn refused to name his starting quarterback for this weekend's must-win game against the Cincinnati Bengals.
'When it goes into next week, I’m not ready to sit here and say what’s going on next week with our quarterbacks, but I will say this: that is something that I have to look at,' he admitted.
Johnson still has full faith in struggling head coach Aaron Glenn to turn their fortunes around
The Jets are last in the league in passing offense and are the only team without a win.
Regardless, Johnson said he still believes in the decisions to hire Darren Mougey as GM and Glenn as coach, although he isn't sure who should start at quarterback going forward.
'That's completely up to the coach. I'm not going to be involved at all in any of that,' he added.
'This is what they´re paid to do, and this is what they're experts at doing and so they'll make the right decision - with what we've got.'
