The New York Jets enter the final Sunday of the 2025 NFL season still licking their wounds from their worst loss of the year â a 32-point drubbing at the hands of the New England Patriots. Making the loss even more painful, the game was the last at home for the Jets this season.
On Sunday, the Jets finally wrap up an excruciating campaign when they face another divisional rival, the Buffalo Bills. The 3-13 team’s main hope is to catch the Bills looking ahead to the playoffs, which might allow New York to escape with a fourth win of the season.
But last Sunday’s lopsided loss only got worse for one Jets player when the NFL announced its “Gameday Accountability” report on Saturday. That’s the list of fines leveled each week against players for actions in the previous week’s games.
Punishment Stemmed From On-Field Penalty
While many or even most of the fines are additional punishments on top of on-field penalties, the league says it independently reviews every play in every game looking for punishable violations, whether the in-game officials flagged them or not.
But Jets linebacker Jermaine Johnson was most definitely flagged for the violation that has now cost him the third-largest fine leveled in Week 17.
Johnson’s 1st Penalty of Season Results in Fine
Despite playing 73 percent of the Jets defensive snaps this season, plus seven percent of special teams snaps, the fourth-year linebacker had not incurred a single penalty in 2025 â until last Sunday.
That’s when, with 1:23 left to go in the first half and the Patriots already leading 35-3, Johnson leveled the Patriots sophomore quarterback, current MVP favorite (per DraftKings Sportsbook odds) Drake Maye with a forearm to the face.
At the time, the play negated what would have been a rare incompletion on the day for Maye â who hit on 19 of his 21 passes including five touchdowns â on a throw to wide receiver Stefon Diggs.
Instead, as Maye was slow to rise from the ground after the shot to the head, Johnson was hit with a roughing the passer penalty that advanced the Patriots 15 yards and, eight plays later, a touchdown pass from Maye to New England tight end Hunter Henry.
Johnson Slapped With 5-Figure Fine
The NFL on Saturday announced that it had fined Johnson $17,389 for what it called a “blow to the head/neck” of the Patriots quarterback. The fine was one of three leveled on Jets players for actions during the Patriots game, and the third-largest of the 25 fines handed down by the NFL over plays in Week 17.
The largest fine of the week went to Houston Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair, who was touched up to the tune of $23,186 for what the league deemed an illegal use of the helmet. A violation that was not flagged by officials on the field in the Texans 20-16 win over the Los Angeles Chargers.
For Johnson, it was not too surprising that the penalty was his first of the season. The Jets 2022 first-round draft pick out of Florida State has played a strangely non-physical style this year, registering only six quarterback hits all season.
In his Pro Bowl year of 2023, Johnson recorded 16 hits on opposing quarterbacks and 7 1/2 sacks. He has been credited with three sacks in 2025.
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