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Tuesday, June 11 could go down as one of the most important days in Jets history . . .
Well, actually maybe Friday, June 8 could go down as one of the most important days in Jets history.
Because Friday, June 7, at 8:15 pm, the Jets announced, “We’ve agreed to terms with Joe Douglas to be our next GM.”
Tuesday, June 10 at 3 pm they will formally introduce Douglas at a press conference in Florham Park.
But the bottom line is this is a huge announcement for the Jets.
Because perhaps for the first time since Bill Parcells left the building, you could make a strong argument they finally have an alpha dog leader of their football operation.
Being an NFL GM isn’t for everybody. Not everybody is comfortable in the GM skin.
The Jets have made some dubious decisions in the past with some of their choices.
Sometimes you got the idea that some people making decisions were scared off by alpha dogs because perhaps they thought it would lessen their power.
If you don’t think this goes on corporate America, you are kidding yourself.
Sometimes weaker candidates are hired because the people doing the interviewing don’t want some powerful figure coming in and upsetting the apple cart.
Joe Douglas, a former University of Richmond offensive tackle, is a alpha dog leader not somebody trying play one on TV.
And just as important, he knows how to find talent and contributed a great deal to the Eagles winning the Super Bowl a couple of seasons ago.
He paid his dues. He’s ready for this. Douglas spent 15 years as a scout working under Baltimore’s Ozzie Newsome, one of the best general managers in NFL history.
Then he went to Chicago for one year (2015 – where he met Adam Gase), but after that season, the Eagles made him an offer he couldn’t refuse – big money to become their VP of Player Personnel.
He spent the last three plus years there and has been a hot GM candidate the entire time. Eagles GM Howie Roseman, a true forward thinker, hired former Browns executive Andrew Berry last year knowing that Douglas was going to leave very soon to become a GM.
So 15 years with Newsome and three years with Roseman learning at the hip of two great executives. Douglas working with those men got two Super Bowls rings from Baltimore and one in Philly.
Look, only time will tell if this will work, but I consider this a big-time hire, and a very important moment in Jets history.
Long-time NFL executive Gil Brandt, who is going in the Hall-of-Fame this year, called this hire a “grand-slam.”
I agree.
The Jets have needed this kind of guy for the longest time.
They don’t just need a GM who is a good judge of talent, but a great leader that can help lead them out of the wilderness, and Douglas is that kind of guy – he commands a room.
Recently the New York Daily News quoted a supposed unnamed current Jets employee saying that Christopher Johnson, “Doesn’t know what he’s doing.”
If this is an actual current Jets employee, that person should obviously be fired.
But after Johnson went out and hired Douglas, that supposed unnamed Jets employee might not know what he’s talking about.
June 10, 2019
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