Yes, he worked under those people, but aside from his one year with Manning, did he exhibit that he had learned ANYTHING from those mentors? No. He had losing records, lousy QB play, and he lost the Dolphins team. IMO it's an insult to Douglas to try to compare their two resumes. We have a small sample of evidence from Douglas so far, but he's done far more right, and shown evidence of having a plan, having the knowledge, and the skill necessary to be a quality GM. The only thing Gase has done right was get Mac fired and help get Douglas hired.
I agree, and I have no problem with that. If you were the new GM of the Jets, would you have blown a bunch of resources on this season, especially with a HC like Gase or a QB like Sam? I sure wouldn't have. I would have set myself up to give myself the best chances for success. He may have wanted to keep Adams, but Adams made that impossible. Then again, once he saw how Adams reacted to his listening to offers for him and ranting about a new contract, he probably made up his mind to trade him. He got rid of a troublemaker, albeit our best player, in Adams for a bevy of draft picks, has a fairly large amount of cap space, added a number of quality young prospects via the draft with talent and speed in the draft this year, and has a lot of early draft picks over the next two seasons. If he gets to hire his own HC and gets an additional pick or picks for Sam, he can totally change this team's fortunes in 2021-2022. As Jets fans, we are so used to GMs being desperate and trying to rebuild on the fly with half-assed moves and measures. Even Parcells was doing everything to "win now" rather than building a team for sustainable success. I don't think we've had a GM since Weeb Ewbank and Namath were here who had the skill to set this team up for long-term success. Maybe Jim Kensil or Mike Hickey, maybe Dick Steinberg if he hadn't gotten cancer and had lived, maybe Dick Haley were that type of GM. That's been so long in the past I don't remember. It's made us all crazed, impatient, and want the GM to make crazy trades, sign every big name FA that comes along, and go all in every year. We don't know what to think or how to act with a GM that's trying to do things the right way.
I'm torn on whether I believe that's acceptable or not. You don't just punt on seasons in the NFL because you're looking at a longer term rebuild. One good draft and 3-4 free agent acquisitions should rebuild a franchise rather quickly in an offseason to at least be competitive. If he's looking at 2022 then that's a big issue. We should've added a couple more pieces in the off-season even at short term deals. The roster unfortunately has very little core and the entire draft class is hurt so it's hard to give him any sort of definitive grade. But this off-season is massive.
But what if in Douglas's mind this team needed to be blown up and rebuilt almost from scratch? Would you do that and retain a malcontent loudmouth like Adams? Would you reward a narrow-dimensioned WR like Anderson? I think Douglas has a blueprint and those guys didn't fit it, and he's going to stick with it until he succeeds or fails. As impatient as as I am - and impatient doesn't nearly get close to how I feel after decades of failure with this team - I'm a firm believer that the good, sustainably winning teams all share one thing in common: they have a blueprint for the identity they want their team to have, and then they draft/acquire players that fit that blueprint. Based on what I've seen so far in the moves he's made, I think Douglas has a blueprint - probably heavily influenced by the Ravens model - and is trying to implement it here. I'm willing to give him some time to do that because all the previous "quick fix" schemes the Jets have tried have failed miserably and set them back years.
Agreed. They do. But this team hasn't even been worthy of being on an NFL field. Our starting receivers last week were Braxton Berrios, Lawrence Cager and Chris Hogan. Frankie Luvu is our best edge pass rushing threat. Our inside linebackers have been dreadful. I understand some of these starters are by way of injury but it's still really bad. Even bad teams aren't THIS non-competitive for nearly an entire season to start the year. Gase is to blame, yes, but the team is so devoid of talent that it's frustrating to be sitting on all the cap space we have.
This!!!! Great post, my friend. I think you have it right. Others are expecting him to act in a desperate fashion, making crazy moves like our previous GMs, just to upgrade the talent and have as good a record as they can each season. I think Douglas told the Johnsons that this team needed to be blown up and have a complete rebuild that was going to take 2-3 seasons, and they agreed. It's the only thing that makes sense at this point. If he was trying to put lipstick on a pig and keep Gase as HC, he would have signed Clowney, made a trade or two for WRs, and probably spent more money in FA or extended Adams. I think Douglas is what is best for the Jets and what we've needed for a long time. Still, I have my breaking points. Regardless of whether Sam will still be our QB going forward or Douglas drafts Lawrence or Fields, he'd better add some serious weapons around that QB next offseason, or my patience will have run out, and I will no longer trust him.
The quick fix always has the Jets rebuilding every 4 years. This isn't Madden. This season is step one in building for long term success. Soon Gase will be gone and this off season thetrue build begins.
I understand - and share - the frustration. It's almost impossible to bear witnessing how bad this team is, but remember the Colts who just beat them, were awful twice in the last 20-something years and wound up getting Manning and Luck. Sometimes you have to just endure the unendurable to get to the other side. We've never really done that, always pushing to have "competitive rebuilds" (an oxymoron if there ever was one!), and doing a half-assed job resulting in drafting 5th or 6th or 10th, but never getting the top 1 or 2 picks. I'm not saying Douglas is guaranteed to succeed with his plan, but at least he has one that's different from all the failed ones we've had in the past.
I agree, I mean it certainly isn't acceptable if a GM is punting on a season, but Douglas refused to sign with the Jets if it was for anything less than 6 years. I think he knew that in order to properly get things on track, he had to tear everything down and nail a few draft classes/FA classes. We will be reaping the rewards of piss poor drafting for some time, and Douglas getting rid of Adams for the package he got, was to me at least, a big indication that Douglas wants as much ammo as he can get to rebuild. The lack of long term contracts is because there's not many people who are worth giving long contracts to, and again the flexibility is something Joe is going to outlast Gase.
This is one of the few years where tanking is worth it because of the generational talent that will be available at #1. As a matter of principal though I do not ever believe that losing NFL games is good for a franchise. Especially for one that's been as bad as we have for a decade. You might be right. It could ultimately be worth it and the lack of a roster might be an indictment on Darnold and not believing in him as being a part of our future.
To clarify, I'm not saying that I think Douglas is "tanking", I just think he isn't really looking at the W/L record (or any other stats) as any indication of progress along HIS plan. I don't believe he's trying to "win" the #1 pick so he can draft Lawrence either, although if he's got the first pick I'd be surprised if he didn't do that. I think he's trying to build a foundation first, and then he'll worry about the QB. Is that the approach I'd use? No, but it IS an approach that has been used and been successful: look at what Parcells did with the Jets (again, I disagreed with it then and still do, but it "worked" up to a point). On that point, I think he believes Darnold is good enough to serve his purposes for now, and unless Sam has been completely ruined by Gase, I think that's a good basis to build upon.
I think he is and I’m ok with it. He knew he didn’t inherit a contender. He knew he had a shitty coach. He knows ownership is clueless. He traded his best player and let his best offensive weapon walk. He signed some bums at WR. He made an effort with the OL but nothing outside of that indicates that he had any intention of fielding a competitive team this season. At the end of the day he was trying to compete this season or he wasn’t. If he was, than I’m a better GM than he is and I don’t even know how 5th year options work. It’s been said a million times already but there’s a reason he held out for a long term contract. More than one, I’m sure, but the big one was that he knew it would take a while to fix this franchise. The only area where I have real concern is his draft and it’s too early to tell what we have there. All of the injuries are a concern, but we’re probably at the point where we can say that it’s a systemic problem with the team more so then just the guys that Douglas drafted.
Yes he does to a point...it would not have crippled us to sign Robby AND Perriman. He could certainly have done that. He could have signed Clowney too. But I agree with the thinking that he is following his blueprint and thinking long term. The fact that he held out for a six year deal speaks to that...he KNEW this was a dumpster fire. And he KNEW he’d need 2-3 drafts to get there. So he’s accumulating draft picks and playing the long game. I did not think we’d be THIS bad, and maybe without the injuries we’d be better....maybe still 0-3 but maybe not blown out every week. I’m guessing he didn’t think it’d be this bad either, but who knows?
One thing I've noticed about some of the top teams right now is they draft to fill roles on the team whereas I feel we draft who we think is the best prospect. I hope whoever the next coach is is 100% on the same page with JD. Have a game plan for the team culture and how they want to play first then build the roster to match
Parcells was doing this because the only reason he came to the Jets was to try to win a Super Bowl for Leon Hess before he died of cancer. True story. If Hess hadn't been dying and begged Parcells to come win one for him that entire era in Jets history would not have happened. And yes, Parcells was packaging things together and running the margins and taking every calculated risk in the book and a few bad ones as well as he did it. 1-15 to Super Bowl champs in 2 seasons was an insane goal that required completely unsound methods to achieve. Parcells almost pulled it off. That the Jets remained competitive after Hess passed and Parcells punted away was a testament to how much talent he had accumulated in that meteoric run and to how committed he was to not leaving a shitshow on the field after he left. That was what the Keyshawn trade was all about. The Jets could easily have gone back to 3-13 on the field with a superstar WR as their showcase.
I know but we have done nothing in Free Agency either....Where is all our cap money going?Other then Bell and Mosley we dont have any big contracts right now.
That’s fine. It’s going to be a nice rebuild if we get Lawrence, Draft well with our picks the next two years, and sign some good guys. We have options. Just have to tank right.
