published on April 25, 2024 in celeb

Joe Douglas Jets GM tenure: Evaluating the good and bad as Eagles arrive

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — Joe Douglas prefers the shadows. He does his best to stay out of the spotlight, even as his job — New York Jets general manager — makes that difficult. Nobody knew what he looked like when he was working his way through the NFL ranks as a scout. When Philadelphia Eagles general manager Howie Roseman hired him in 2016, he started to show his face more. A few times a year, he’d emerge for the NFL Draft.

Each April, Roseman and Douglas — opposites in football background, with Douglas a former offensive lineman and Roseman someone who never played the sport — would sit alongside each other in armchairs in a small room at the Eagles facility, surrounded by reporters, fielding questions about what the team might do. Douglas wouldn’t say all that much, and that was on purpose. He learned quickly that, in Philadelphia, anything you say can become fodder for headlines and angry radio callers.

He saw fans calling for Roseman’s head before 2016, and was there when he won the Super Bowl in 2017 and Roseman became a local hero. Behind the scenes, Douglas played a crucial role in helping to construct that Super Bowl roster, even if he never sought credit for it.

When he took the job as Jets general manager in 2019, he knew what came with that choice: the scrutiny of being in a position of power, in the New York market, for one of the most tortured franchises in sports. At his introductory news conference, Douglas said he felt the “sense of urgency” to win when he was in Philadelphia, and he felt the same thing with the Jets.

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Well, it’s 2023 and the Jets are still fighting for their first playoff appearance. Look at Douglas’ work as Jets GM in totality, and it’s been mostly positive, undeniably an upgrade over some previous GMs. He’s hit some legitimate home runs in free agency and the draft, mixed in with some stinkers.

Douglas also inherited a difficult situation. He joined the Jets in June 2019 after Mike Maccagnan, his predecessor, had already gone on a spending spree in free agency — see: Le’Veon Bell — and mostly bungled that draft class outside of Quinnen Williams. The talent cupboard was bare and it’s not anymore, Douglas building the Jets roster into having one of the league’s best defenses with a couple of game-changers on offense.

Sunday, the Jets will face the Eagles, Douglas’ old team — and a team the Jets have never beaten, going 0-12 in the series since 1973. The Eagles made the playoffs in each of the last three seasons Douglas worked there, missed in 2020, and made it the last two years, too. Last season, they barely lost to the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl. The Jets have the NFL’s longest playoff drought, last appearing in the 2010 postseason.

Five years is an eternity in the NFL, and few general managers have survived five seasons without a playoff appearance. Douglas has a 22-49 record as GM. So, there is a lot on the line this season, made all the more challenging by Aaron Rodgers’ season-ending Achilles injury in Week 1. The time to win is now.

In the NFL, it’s often said that draft classes shouldn’t be evaluated for a few years. But what about general managers?

As the Jets prepare to face the Eagles, this felt like a good time to review the good and bad from Douglas’ tenure with the Jets so far.

Garrett Wilson shows off his Offensive Rookie of the Year award. (Kirby Lee / USA Today)

Good: 2022 NFL Draft

This draft class might go down as one of the best in Jets history, good enough to grant Douglas and coach Robert Saleh some breathing room after a late-season collapse last year. It’s pretty rare for a team to hit on this many players in one draft class, and Douglas hit on just about all of them.

Cornerback Sauce Gardner was an All-Pro and the Defensive Rookie of the Year. Wide receiver Garrett Wilson was the Offensive Rookie of the Year. Running back Breece Hall may have been OROY had he stayed healthy, and he looks like a star again this year. Defensive end Jermaine Johnson has become one of the Jets’ best defensive linemen. Max Mitchell started five games last year and played well, and is likely about to take over again at right tackle. And defensive end Micheal Clemons was already a key part of the Jets’ defensive line rotation as a rookie.

This draft was the signature moment of Douglas’ tenure.

Bad: 2020 and 2021 NFL Drafts

This is the flip side of 2022’s success: Douglas’ first two drafts as GM were mostly misses. From the 2020 class, offensive tackle Mekhi Becton is the only starter, and that’s after he missed two full seasons to injuries and had his fifth-year option declined. Six players (Denzel Mims, Jabari Zuniga, La’Mical Perine, James Morgan, Cameron Clark, Braden Mann) are on other teams or out of the league. Ashtyn Davis and Bryce Hall are backups.

The 2021 draft class doesn’t look as bad as a whole. Offensive lineman Alijah Vera-Tucker and cornerback Michael Carter II became quality NFL starters (though Vera-Tucker has now suffered season-ending injuries twice), and Jamien Sherwood and Brandin Echols offer depth. Douglas traded second-round pick Elijah Moore to the Cleveland Browns this offseason after a disappointing 2022. The worst pick, though, was at the top: quarterback Zach Wilson, selected second overall.

He’s shown signs of life the last two weeks against the Chiefs and Denver Broncos, but that doesn’t negate everything that came before. Wilson had one of the worst-ever starts to a career for someone drafted so high, and was benched multiple times last year. In retrospect, it was a brutal quarterback draft class after Trevor Lawrence, but that doesn’t mean Douglas should get a pass.

A big part of this error: Douglas didn’t bring in any veteran quarterbacks to push Wilson as a rookie, which the Jets have admitted was a mistake. Maybe Wilson can salvage his historically bad start this season, but so far, it can only be viewed as a miss.

If Reed keeps playing at this level — PFF graded him 20th among corners last year, 13th this year — he’ll go down as one of the best free-agent signings in franchise history. And Douglas got him at a bargain, too: He’s the 18th-highest-paid cornerback in the league, according to Over the Cap.

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Bad: Signing Dalvin Cook and Mecole Hardman

Wednesday, Hardman expressed his frustration, saying he’s open to getting traded from the Jets if it means he’ll play more. He was a healthy scratch in Week 5 after playing just 22 offensive snaps through four games, with one target. Douglas signed Hardman to a deal worth $4 million guaranteed this offseason. The Jets viewed him as a souped-up version of Braxton Berrios, and yet they’ve barely played him, Saleh making it clear undrafted rookie Xavier Gipson has overtaken Hardman on the depth chart.

Hardman is one of the fastest receivers in the NFL with proven success after the catch and on end-arounds, and yet the Jets haven’t been able to find a way to get him on the field.

As for Cook: Rodgers wanted the Jets to sign him, and they did. But it seems fair to say that giving him $5.8 million guaranteed was a mistake. Cook has clearly lost a step after a stellar career with the Minnesota Vikings and has been one of the least-effective running backs in the NFL. He is averaging minus-1.46 rushing yards over expected per carry, per Next Gen Stats, which is the second-worst mark among running backs with at least 30 carries. Consider: The Miami Dolphins gave Raheem Mostert a two-year deal with only $2.2 million guaranteed, and he’s scored seven touchdowns already.

Good: Trader Joe

Douglas rarely loses a trade. He swindled the Seattle Seahawks in the Jamal Adams deal, and used one of those picks to get Garrett Wilson. He got a second-, fourth- and sixth-round pick for Sam Darnold and a fourth-round pick for Chris Herndon, who is out of the league. He also pulled third- and fifth-round picks from the New York Giants for Leonard Williams even though Williams was about to hit free agency, and got Day 3 picks in deals for Blake Cashman, Avery Williamson, Jordan Willis and Steve McLendon. He also traded up for Hall, Johnson and Vera-Tucker in the draft, and all three became quality starters.

The Jets needed a running back when Hall suffered his torn ACL last year. So Douglas traded a sixth-round pick to the Jacksonville Jaguars for Robinson. Quickly, it was clear that — due to various injuries — Robinson was no longer the same player who rushed for 1,070 yards as a rookie. He averaged 2.9 yards per carry in four games and quickly became a healthy scratch.

Joe Douglas and Robert Saleh stayed patient before completing a trade for Aaron Rodgers. (Elsa / Getty Images)

It was always risky to bank on a 39-year-old quarterback, but the Jets set out to find a significant upgrade at the position, and Douglas reeled in the best one. Now that the Jets will only be giving up a second-round pick in 2024 instead of a first after Rodgers’ injury, the compensation doesn’t look terrible. Even if Rodgers doesn’t play again this season, his arrival in Florham Park was extremely impactful for the culture Saleh and Douglas are trying to build, and Rodgers plans to return in 2024.

It’s also fair to point out the Jets only needed Rodgers because of how bad Zach Wilson was the last two years, but Douglas still deserves credit for pulling this deal off — and sticking to his guns as the process dragged out through the offseason.

Bad: 2021 free agency class

Douglas couldn’t have planned for Corey Davis’ early retirement, but he was injury prone before that (10 games missed in two years) and the Jets clearly didn’t have big plans for him anymore after adding so many other receivers (especially Allen Lazard this offseason) the last two years. Defensive end Carl Lawson suffered a torn Achilles in 2021 and was solid in 2022, but was a healthy scratch in Week 5 and has fallen out of the defensive end rotation.

Defensive tackle Sheldon Rankins (now in Houston) played well over two years, Morgan Moses was a solid starter on a one-year deal and special teamer Justin Hardee made the Pro Bowl, so it wasn’t all bad. But the big-ticket players — Davis and Lawson — ultimately didn’t work out.

Good: Working the waiver wire, undrafted rookies

In 2020 and 2021, Douglas claimed defensive end John Franklin-Myers (Rams) and linebacker Quincy Williams (Jaguars) off waivers and both have since signed second contracts. Williams is even on a Pro Bowl pace in 2023.

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Defensive end Bryce Huff went undrafted in 2020. Safety Tony Adams went undrafted in 2022. Gipson, a wide receiver and returner, went undrafted in 2023. All three are playing significant roles this year, with Huff on the verge of a significant payday as one of the league’s most efficient pass rushers. Douglas and the Jets scouting staff deserve a lot of credit for all of those finds.

TBD: The 2023 NFL Draft, hiring Robert Saleh, building the O-line

Other than second-round pick Joe Tippmann, starting at right guard, the Jets’ 2023 draft class has not contributed much so far — but it’s early.

The success or failure of hiring Saleh in 2021 hinges on how this season goes.

Some would argue Douglas already failed at building the offensive line — a fair argument considering it’s year five and there are still questions — but the unit has finally shown signs of life the last couple of weeks, at least before Vera-Tucker went down. Tippmann looks like a keeper, Becton is playing well at left tackle and veterans like Connor McGovern and Laken Tomlinson have leveled out. If the unit keeps ascending, Douglas deserves credit. If it fails again, he deserves blame.

(Photos of Zach Wilson, Joe Douglas and Breece Hall: Matthew Stockman, Elsa and Al Bello / Getty Images)

The Football 100, the definitive ranking of the NFL’s best 100 players of all time, goes on sale this fall. Pre-order it here.

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