Justin Fields shows heart and leadership as Jets finally earn their first win of 2025 after emotional week
A well-deserved victory for Justin Fields.
This season has truly tested Justin Fields in every single way, and things hit a low ahead of the New York Jets’ Week 8 matchup against the Cincinnati Bengals, where it seemed like the quarterback was going to lose his starting job.
However, in the end, it was he who took the field on Sunday, leading the Jets to their first win of the season, defeating the Bengals 39-38. And after the game, he opened up about the emotional toll this past week took on him and how he persevered through it all.
“It’s been a lot for me emotionally, spiritually,” Fields told reporters. “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.
“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. Yesterday I started praying, praying like crazy, just for a win.
He didn’t stop there.
“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.”
For Fields, he was the demonstration of class, showing how to handle adversity and overcome it, regardless of all the outside noise. And it was a well-deserved victory for the quarterback who has clearly been giving it his all this season, despite what the record may show.
Did Justin Fields silence his critics (including the ones on his own team)?
During the Jets’ Week 7 game, Fields was benched and replaced by Tyrod Taylor. Then team owner Woody Johnson took a major dig at him, saying that, “if we can just complete a pass, it would look good.” It felt like he was putting the losses all on Fields’ shoulders.
But the quarterback proved him wrong, stepping up on Sunday to get the Jets their first win. And afterwards, he also addressed Johnson’s comments.
“I get that he’s the owner of the team, but that’s outside noise,” Fields said. “The biggest thing was my teammates still believing in me, my coaches still believing in me, and God.”