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GM Joe Douglas is gone. He was with the Jets for five-plus years.
I never met him.
Yes, I was in press conferences but never had a man-to-man, one-on-one talk with the guy once.
Maybe it was my fault.
But that is neither here nor there, but sometimes you just wonder if he’s just more comfortable scouting college players, not running the whole show.
Former NFL GM Mike Lombardi said that Douglas with the Jets was more like a “college scouting director” than a GM.
Sometimes it seemed that way.
Joe loves scouting college players, and he’s good at it, but there is more to the job than that.
But there are times when big stories happen, involving players on the roster, that fall outside of your scheduled media availability (before the draft, after the draft, the combine, the league meeting, mid-season and post-season), so as a GM, you probably should talk to the media and public, like Brandon Beane in Buffalo always does. When something big happens, Beane’s in front of the cameras addressing it, not putting everything on his coach. During Haason Reddick’s long holdout, Robert Saleh had to do all the talking.
And how come under Douglas (and Saleh) they never cut players to send a message?
The Jets’ defense has been a horror show this year. What did Douglas do about it?
No moves at the trade deadline. That same week of the trade deadline, the Buffalo Bills, who struggled to stop the run, added defensive tackles Quinton Jefferson and Jordan Phillips. The Jets struggled stopping the run and added nobody.
During their recent bye week, the Seattle Seahawks, who were struggling on defense, cut their leading tackler, linebacker Tyrell Dodson. Tackling stats can be totally misleading, as you often see on the Jet stat sheet after games this year.
With all the defensive struggles all year, what changes did Joe make on the roster?
The only line-up change over the last month was the benching of safety Tony Adams, and that was forced by the owner, according to ESPN.
It’s not ideal for an owner to dictate line-up changes, but in this case, Woody was right. Adams is more of a core special teams player/backup safety.
But with the Douglas/Saleh tandem, and now Douglas/Ulbrich, it seemed like it would take a Supreme Court ruling for them to bench or cut a player.
I never understood that.
Even Mike McDaniel in Miami, who some consider to be too nice as a head coach, just cut a starting linebacker David Long, because he didn’t like the film.
“You’re entitled to nothing in this world,” McDaniel said. “Playing time is solved by players on the field and the best players have to play and that’s my job to follow through with that.”
When did you see that under Douglas/Saleh?
Joe is a nice man, but there was a passivity to his leadership style that was problematic.
The way he raved about certain defensive linemen in press conferences, I wondered if he was watching the same games I was.
Why the heck isn’t linebacker Chazz Surratt starting on this defense?
Every time he plays, he makes stuff happen, showing good instincts and a nose for the ball.
I think he’s not playing because they don’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings.
There needs to be more of a meritocracy at 1 Jets Drive, less of the Good Ship Lollipop.
Maybe Phil Savage can change this a little down the stretch. Make some roster changes, steal some players off other team’s practice squads. The lack of moves on defense, when the defense is struggling, is a bad optic.
Yes, the owner needs to hire a GM and coach, throw them the car keys, and let them do their thing, like the best owners do – Kansas City’s Clark Hunt, Baltimore’s Steve Bisciotti and Buffalo’s Terry Pegula.
But you need to hire powerful figures who aren’t afraid of hurting feelings.
For Woody to have to tell Douglas and Ulbrich to bench Adams, is a bad reflection on the GM or whoever the coach was at the time.
Why would Joe refuse to make roster moves to send a message or to try and upgrade the defense?
Good guy, but his approach was perhaps a little too milquetoast at times.
November 21, 2024
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