It's easy to see why change likely coming for the Jets General Manager spot
Are we witnessing the final days of Joe Douglas as GM of the New York Jets? I believe so. And I believe he deserves to be held accountable for the lackluster performance under his tenure as GM. I’m not saying he should be fired; rarely do I call for someone to be fired, but it […]
Are we witnessing the final days of Joe Douglas as GM of the New York Jets? I believe so. And I believe he deserves to be held accountable for the lackluster performance under his tenure as GM. I’m not saying he should be fired; rarely do I call for someone to be fired, but it would be really hard for me to re-sign him at this point.
Joe Douglas is in the last year of his six-year contract he signed after the draft in 2019. He took over a team that was reeling. There was a lot of work that needed to be done to turn this franchise around.
Adam Gase was in his second season as head coach, the Jets looked awful and there was little to no talent on the roster. The quarterback they took third overall in the draft looked like a bust and the offensive line was neglected for so long that it looked like a dead house plant.
In Joe’s first season as GM, he immediately addressed the offensive line, drafting left tackle Mekhi Becton with his first ever draft pick as GM. Joe traded malcontent safety Jamal Adams to the Seattle Seahawks for a haul of draft picks. To this day, that was one of the most impressive trades I’ve seen.
Jets fans, to their credit, were patient with Douglas believing that he would turn the franchise around, while understanding it wasn’t going to happen overnight. The pinnacle for Douglas was his 2022 draft class when he landed both the offensive and defensive rookies of the year as well as Jermaine Johnson, Breece Hall, Micheal Clemons and some other nice rotational players.
The problem is, almost all the other decisions he has made have not quite worked out. I’ll skip over the Aaron Rodgers stuff because, let’s be honest, that was all Woody Johnson. Joe’s first hire at head coach was Robert Saleh who didn’t make it past five games this year. What’s worse is it doesn’t appear like he had any say in the fate of his former head coach.
He traded Sam Darnold to the Carolina Panthers and drafted Zach Wilson. Darnold looks like he might actually be an above average starting quarterback in the league while I expect to see Wilson suiting up for the UFL before this decade is up.
Joe Douglas has yet to sign a wide receiver in free agency that has not been a bust and apart from Garrett Wilson, hasn’t drafted any that have stuck around either. He drafts a running back every year, a joke in itself and yet apart from Breece and Braelon Allen, none of them are making any sort of contribution to any NFL team.
In the end, the team is 30-63 in his six seasons on the job, including 3-7 this year. Jets fans were patient Joe, but six season of never going past seven wins is too much to ask to an already disheartened fan base.
Douglas spoke to the media last week for the first time since the season began and he was asked if he is concerned about his future.
“I come in here every day, I just want to do whatever I can to help this team reach its goals and get to its destination, and whatever happens, happens,” Douglas said. It sounds as if the writing is on the wall for Joe and he has accepted his fate. The fact that he wasn’t really included in the Saleh firing means that Woody has already taken over the team. Only an epic run through the second half of the season will stay Douglas’ execution at this point.
“We haven’t had a winning season,” Douglas said. “There’s a lot of frustration. Obviously, it starts with me. I can look back and there’s quite a few things I could have done better. When a situation happens like happened four weeks ago, you have a lot of self-reflective moments on the things that you could have done better to keep that from happening. We have an opportunity with these last stretch of games to change that narrative.”
The Jets are going to be looking for a new GM at the end of the year, and while I was always pulling for Joe, apart from one great draft class and a few decent trades, he has yet to build anything but a house of cards in Florham Park. We are going to spend the next eight weeks watching it fall.
