I understand not wanting to get away from mediocrity, but mediocrity is the 2000s Jets. Make the playoffs every other year, win the occasional playoff game. The last few years haven't been mediocre, they've been bad. Also Douglas's resume was never real, just a mirage painted by the media. Sure he worked for the Ravens and Eagles, but he had nothing to do with their success. And people in the NFL knew it at the time. That's why he was available in May after the offseason had ended, and why he took this job with Gase; he knew he was never going to have great options with other teams.
Blowing it up and starting over can build a winner, you just have to not totally botch 2 of your first 3 drafts. Imagine how different our team would look if you swapped Becton for Wirfs, McDonald for Addison/JSN/Flowers, and AVT for 2-3 other young OL. We'd be one of the youngest, most talented teams in the league. And these aren't hindsight moves, they were ones we actually could've done and were screaming from the rooftops to do in the moment.
I still believe that the only reason Douglas "missed" on Zach was the poor coaching and development, coupled with the lack of a good OL and skill pieces. Where he "missed" - if indeed it was his doing - was in having Zach start right away and not sitting and learning. I suspect this was more a Woody thing, believing he had a "mini Mahomes" and wanted to start milking that right away. In any case, however Zach wound up where he is now, it still means they haven't fixed the QB problem for years, and Douglas has to take a good share of the blame.
The thing about mediocrity is it's like purgatory...you never really escape it. I was okay with the complete tear down because I believed JD had a blueprint he was building to that would lead to long term winning. Maybe it would have, but last year's panic moves over the winter blew that out of the water. I would say that I really hope he gets things fixed for a SB run next year because IDK how many more years I have to see one, but frankly I'm entering into the realm of IDGAF anymore.
The thing I remember people complaining about the most during the Herm era was that we would never rebuild, and it was kind of close to that with Mangini although he scouted better overall. So that was kind of the mediocrity, always having an aging overrated roster with average play-it-safe coaching. Saleh's in-game coaching tactics and overall demeanor on the sideline kind of remind me of Herm in a strange way. So average.
It's interesting you bring up that he was available in May. I did a little bit of digging on him before when I tried to understand why unlike Roseman, who is very aggressive, Joe just stood pat and pissed away the season and I realized he was only working with Roseman only for 3 years. And his specialty was the draft. JD is a scout by trade. He was a scout for 15 years in Baltimore, and he did build good reputation there as a scout, to give him credit. But you are right in a sense that he did not have a senior position in the organization. He was not close to Ozzy Newsome. I mean they knew each other, but he was not one of the senior guys there, not one of Ozzy's disciples or anything like that. His first relatively senior position was director of College scouting in Chicago is 2015. In that draft the Bears whiffed on Kevin White with 7th overall pick, but did get a couple of decent players in Eddie Goldman and Adrian Amos. Then, after just one year there, he was hired by Howie Roseman to be VP of Player Personnel, which is a very senior role. He was there 2016-2019. And they did win SB during this time. So I could see why Johnsons picked him as a GM and frankly he was not a terrible choice, I can't really blame them. However, there were a few red flags as well. First, he only had 3-4 years of experience as a senior executive. However, he never became assistant GM there, specialty was the draft. That's very little before assuming top position on a football team. And secondly check this out. Philly writers analyze Douglas' stay there. "Douglas was tasked with helping the Eagles build their draft board and finding the guys who would be a part of this team’s long-term success. Douglas helped Howie Roseman and the rest of Philly’s brass orchestrate the team’s drafts in 2017, 2018, and 2019." The article then goes into the details of each selection. "Conclusion: Though there was a lot of hype and excitement surrounding the Joe Douglas hire, you can’t argue with the results in a results-driven business. Douglas was a flop with the Eagles, and the team is better off now that he’s with the Jets." "Well, that isn’t a fair statement. Let’s see how the next draft goes first for these two teams, and then, this can be revisited later. Here’s the good news. Things can’t get much worse than what we’ve been seeing, at least let’s hope not." Does this sounds familiar?
Yikes. Of course, Woody did all his diligence and knew all about this and weighed the options and hired him anyway. There's no way he didn't have this information of his disposal. Oh wait....
No team should waste time being concerned with escaping mediocrity until they attain it. That should be next year's only goal. A run for a playoff shot is a stretch goal for 2024; the Super Bowl is somewhere over the horizon.
We haven't tried hard enough apparently. Let's revisit this on Jan 8th. For now I gotta keep hope alive that @ouchy will be the Jets 2024 GM.
I've placed my "Voodoo in a Box" order. I'll be dancing in a circle, shitting my pants and hoping "the bones" land in the proper order when I roll them over the duck shit, from my voodoo kit, hoping that SOMEONE with a brain starts to correct this fucking nightmare!
I agree with you 100%. Add in the whiff on Beckton and that is why we're where we are. Fuck Zack and Fuck Becton.
The thing is, like I said before, JD wasn't a terrible choice. Ultimately what I am now realizing, all these scouts and GMs are not any better than a consensus draft board. Now days all information, 95%+ of footage, etc, is available a lot more than before to pretty much everyone. You look at Connor Rodgers or Cole Thompson's draft board, it's just as good as any GM's one. In fact most problems arise when someone falls in love with a prospect and reaches or trades up and gives up a lot. Or picking that prospect over a much better one (i.e. Becton vs Wirfs), Even that 2022 draft, after the draft was over, everyone thought selections in round 1 and 2 were really good for the Jets. JJ fell and we got him, Breece was a good choice. GW and Sauce were universally considered top of the positions. So, the true art of that draft was basically making consensus choices and taking an opportunity when players fell a little bit to grab them and moving around the draft board. However, then in the 4th JD reached a bit for Max and Clemons, and they are nothing special. Clemons is OK as depth and Max should not be in the NFL. The point being - we need to get an executive who has spent enough time with other top notch executives, like Howie Roseman where they can try to replicate what these guys did as far as strategy. Honestly I would even prefer an analytics background GM, like Alec Halaby (currently assistant GM for Roseman and was in senior position under Roseman for dozen years), he doesn't have to come from scouting background. But if we still want scouting background, there is Andy Weidl. He was working with Roseman (and JD) in Philly, and after JD left, took over his role and helped build great OLine and draft Hurtz. Then served as assistant GM in Pitts. Basically a JD, but spent more than double the time with top GM Roseman, worked as assistant GM for a successful team, plus better track record. A JD, but with ability to build OLine and draft a QB. https://www.the33rdteam.com/7-personnel-executives-who-will-be-2024-nfl-general-manager-candidates/ There are some good options out there.
