Woody Johnson Talks Aaron Rodgers, Says 'I Never Look Back' Ahead Of Jets-Steelers

New York Jets owner Woody Johnson said Tuesday he wants to focus on which quarterback the Jets will be starting next, not on whether the team should have parted ways with Aaron Rodgers last spring.

Rodgers has since led the Steelers to a 4-2 record, while the Jets are 0-7 with Justin Fields and Tyrod Taylor under center.

"I never look back. You have to look forward in football," Johnson said Tuesday if he regretting moving on from Rodgers (h/t The Athletic's Nicki Jhabvala). "Even when you cut players, they could be a Hall of Famer, you just never know. But Aaron is playing great now. He's in a situation that's working for him."

Fields was benched last Sunday during the Jets' Week 7 loss to the Carolina Panthers. Although he was openly critical of Fields, Johnson said it would ultimately be the coaches' decision as to whether Taylor should start against the Cincinnati Bengals during Sunday's Week 8 matchup.

When asked about how confident he was in head coach Aaron Glenn's ability to turn the season around, Johnson answered (h/t The Athletic's Nicki Jhabvala): "It looks like he's turning around parts of it. It's hard when you have a quarterback with a rating that we've got.

"He has the ability, but something just is not jiving. But if you look at any head coach with a quarterback like that, you're going to see similar results."

Johnson added that the Jets offense could look good "if we can just complete a pass."

The Jets rank last in the NFL with just 1,224 passing yards and lead the league with 31 sacks allowed through seven games this season.

Those aren't the worst stats for the league's only winless team. The Jets have been held without a touchdown in consecutive games. In five prior games the team had recorded just 11 total touchdowns. Seven of those came in the fourth quarter, often when games were already out of reach.

Quarterback turnover in New York has come at a high cost, not just in terms of losses but in terms of salary cap penalties, over the last two seasons.

The Jets took on a total of $49 million in dead money by releasing Rodgers ahead of the 2025 season. The team is using more than seven percent of the 2025 cap to pay out $21 million of that total this year, per Spotrac.

New York is now facing the possibility of moving on from Fields prior to the expiration of the two-year, $40 million deal he signed ahead of the 2025 season. Cutting him before June 1 would cost the team another $22 million in dead money, per Over the Cap.

With the Rodgers era behind him, Johnson might not be interested in reminiscing about his team's former quarterback. But the Jets will hope to learn some lessons from these contracts, as well as from watching players like Rodgers and Sam Darnold struggle in New York only to succeed elsewhere, before potentially targeting a quarterback in the 2026 NFL draft.