Joe Douglas: Three Years On
Edition #151
☀️Good Morning!
June 7th, 2019 was the day the Jets hired Joe Douglas, which many believe marked the start of the turnaround. The Jets have yet to complete that journey but the course that was set was logical. Today we’re going to take a quick look back at Joe Douglas’s work over the last three years.
🗽 According to DJ Bienaime of Newsday, Mekhi Becton is expected to attend mandatory camp. This was expected, he's only missed voluntary workouts so far to be with his newborn child, I think the expectation was he'd be around when the real work started. It's a big year for Becton.
Romeo Crennel is calling time on his coaching career of 39 years. He was the defensive line coach for the Jets between 1997-1999 as a member of the Bill Parcells coaching staff. He left to become the Cleveland Brown’s defensive coordinator in 2000.
Former Jets QB Ryan Fitzpatrick who just announced his retirement from football appeared on the Adam Schefter podcast and admitted that the final year playing for the Jets in 2016 represented the “lowest of the lows” - Even hinting that he was potentially ready to walk away from football, he didn’t of course and played for 5 more years.
It’s not often you’ll see a GM get hired at the start of June. Most franchises want their new GM in place to oversee free agency in March and the draft in April, but back in 2019, the Jets weren’t being run like most franchises.
In January 2019 Adam Gase was hired as the head coach, he and then general manager Mike Maccagnan never really saw eye-to-eye and it was that division that ultimately led to Maccagnan losing his job.
Before that happened however the GM splashed the case during free agency. Le’Veon Bell was brought in on a four-year $52.5 million contract, they made C.J Mosley the highest-paid inside linebacker in league history with a five-year $85 million contract. He brought in Jamison Crowder on a three-year $28.5 million deal and a number of other players like Daniel Brown, Trevor Siemian, and Chandler Catanzaro…among others.
The Jets left the draft with Quinnen Williams, Jachai Polite, Chuma Edoga, Trevon Wesco, Blake Cashman, and Blessuan Austin…which doesn’t look like an overly successful class considering three years later it has yielded just one starter. In short Mike Maccagnan and Adam Gase did a lot of work in four months, only for that relationship to break down before it really got going.
When the Jets fired Maccagnan the league scratched its head. Why would you fire a GM only months after letting him open the checkbook on a number of high-priced free agents? What became clear was that Adam Gase was the man in control and in a power struggle it was the first-year coach who struck the knockout blow.
Joe Douglas was the favorite from the very start, he’d been with Gase for a year in Chicago back in 2015, Douglas acting as the director of college scouting and Gase as the offensive coordinator. Having spent 15 years in the Ravens scouting department as part of the renowned Ozzie Newsome front office tree, he was always likely to get the job, especially after being credited with playing a key role in building the Super Bowl-winning Philadelphia Eagles.
Adam Gase said during the hiring process that the new GM would have the final decision on roster decisions. Some people debate the influence of Gase, especially in reference to the 2020 draft class which has the chance to be a disaster class. I’m not sure if Joe Douglas knew the extent of the roster re-build he would have to undertake but he instantly got started on trying to ensure the Jets were built in the right way for sustainable success.
There are some key aspects to what we’ve seen from Joe Douglas:
He doesn’t just throw a ton of money at a problem, there’s absolutely no point taking your car in for a paint job if the engine won’t fire. Douglas has been prudent in his approach to free-agency spending wisely and structuring contracts in such a way that allows the Jets to maintain flexibility. A lot of deals are front-loaded with guarantees like the Corey Davis and Carl Lawson deals, both players are signed through 2023 and have a combined $0 of guaranteed money. If the Jets want to move on from one or the other after 2022, they can.
Build from the inside out. Having worked under Ozzie Newsome we shouldb’t be surprised that Joe Douglas has a philosophy of building out the lines. The QB is the most valuable asset in the modern game, you win football in two different ways. You protect your QB and you disrupt the opposing QB, football is a highly simple game wrapped up in a web of complexity. Douglas has spent considerable resources to build his lines.
Support structure - What didn’t we do with Sam Darnold? We didn’t give him a support structure in terms of talent. Joe Douglas won’t make that mistake with Zach Wilson. Whether it’s drafting Elijah Moore, Garrett Wilson, Breece Hall, Michael Carter, AVT, or signing Laken Tomlinson, Corey Davis, C.J Uzomah or Tyler Conklin, Douglas knows that any young QB needs talent around him and Wilson has more than enough.
Coaching staff - We all knew that Adam Gase wasn’t the right choice, with all due respect to Adam he wasn’t the right person for a re-build and he wasn’t the right person to inspire a batch of young and hungry players. We don’t know what kind of coach Robert Saleh will become, but we do know from everything we’ve heard that he’s inspirational and a true leader. That’s what you need in a head coach, time will tell if that was the right hire, but it sure seems that way.
Trader Joe. We knew that Joe wanted to build through the draft, but to do that you need assets and Joe Douglas has worked the trade market as well as any GM in football over the last two years. The return he got for Jamal Adams was astonishing, I still can’t actually believe a team gave up multiple firsts for a box safety. But it’s not just the blockbuster deal, getting what he did for Darnold, getting a 6th round pick for Blake Cashman, getting a 4th round pick for Chris Herndon, those trades make a huge difference.
It would be impossible within one newsletter to truly cover every single move Joe Douglas has made, they haven’t all worked out but no GM has a 100% hit rate. We haven’t even talked about his waiver wire adds, one of his first moves back in 2019 was claiming Braxton Berrios off waivers from the Patriots (September 2019) and we recently added Nate Herbig off waivers as well, a player who I’m confident will make the 2022 roster.
The Jets’ revitalization goes beyond the players on the field, there has been a bigger move to analytics over the last two years and last off-season the Jets established an Athletic Care and Performance Department aimed at focusing on improving the players’ overall health, nutrition, and training. In year one the Jets still experienced a number of debilitating injuries, but the appetite for innovation is there…and that can only be a good thing for the Jets moving forward.
Three years on and the job is unfinished, but the Jets are experiencing competent management for the first time in a long time and that’s largely down to Joe Douglas. We’re a much better organization for having him here and long may that opinion reign.
Great read, David! Thanks!! I think he's made the right moves, and this is the year we start to see the right results.
It’s June, hiring a GM in June is nuts, Douglas was handcuffed, the 2019 season shouldn’t count as part of the Douglas Era, but it is what it is. There is lot like about Joe Douglas, CAP management, player acquisition and over all drafting. Players are always respected and protected, JD has created an environment where players can flourish.
Douglas seeks value and opportunity, has the ability to say “No” to contracts and deals, but has show the willingness to invest , trading up for AVT, JJ & Hall.
Douglas seems unpredictable, but it is his pursuit of value with a very deep understanding of player markets that creates many of these moves.He signs Cornerback DJ Reed to a fair contract, and then drafts Sauce. Not sure anyone saw this major investment in CB’s coming, but it’s predicated on seeking value. The reconstruction of the TE room, was massive but JD got two TE’s , Uzomah & Conklin, for the price of one , Dalton Shultz.. Then he drafted a-value pick in a Ruckert in the very late third round. Douglas found a way to support his QB, and help create a complimentary Running Game with the TE’s and Hall.
The best long term aspect of Douglas could be his inclusive management style. Based on respect and integrity, JD has everyone rowing the boat in the same direction. Saleh & Douglas are joined at the hip. Douglas listens, Scouting and Assistant Coaches input are closely integrated into the draft process. Everyone working together for the same goal.