Hear me out - I'm not even sure if I believe what I'm saying myself - but hear me out: There have been members of the media who have indicated that the Jets were tanking at an organizational level. Someone higher up than the coaches/players was doing everything possible to tank for Trevor. I don't see how that could be anyone other than Douglas+Johnson. With that in mind, do you think less of Douglas that he couldn't even tank correctly? If you're 3 losses away from landing Lawrence, how do you not do everything possible to ensure the team loses the last 3 games? If it takes resting some starters then so be it. Jacksonville has started 3 different QB's this year so I don't want to hear anything about us not making it obvious we're tanking. I think JD intended to tank but thought we were bad enough to where he wouldn't have to meddle too much. This looks like it was probably a colossal mistake. Did JD not have the guts to actually ensure that we completed the tank? The early returns on his draft picks are good but this could prove to be a black eye on his entire tenure if we don't find a better QB quickly.
I've been skeptical of Douglas ever since he agreed to take this job without having authority over Gase. Then I got more skeptical when he said he'd do everything to protect Darnold but went on to do the exact opposite. Now that he's blown the one thing that could have made it all worth it, I've lost all faith I ever had in him.
No, in fact it should make us feel the opposite. First and foremost, Douglas doesn't have the power to meddle in the decisions about who gets playing time and things like that, outside of the most blatant sabotage like cutting players like Darnold, Flacco, etc. and forcing Gase that way to start players who are unprepared. But given the organizational structure, even if you are convinced that Douglas was 100% in on the tank, he did all that he could have done to ensure that it happened. I don't think Douglas was in on the tank and I wouldn't expect him to have been. The precedence that intentionally losing sets for a franchise is a bad one and it sets a terrible culture that we don't want to have. So far, Douglas has done a good job with the mess that he's been given. With this season, he's cleaned out a lot of the mess that Idzik and Maccagnan left for him. Now, starting in March, it's time for him to start building the team in his vision.
I think he’s tried to with all the cuts and trades.. I don’t think he thought we can beat the Rams.. the Rams completely underestimated them and weren’t even running a hurry up offence in the 4th qtr.. Goff drained the clock on them... JD knew his job/life would be a lot easier having Lawrence and Becton to build around on offence. Now his job just became the hardest in the nfl.
What more could Douglas possibly do to ensure we lost that game? He got rid of the guys he could get rid of, like Williamson and Bell. Even waived Desir when we were short on bodies at CB. It's clear he was in on the tank, but at the end of the day, he does not make calls on the field or decides who plays. He can't tell Gase to tank either. This is not NE, where Belichick does both. I know people want to blame "the Jets" for not even being able to tank right, but unless the coach or players are in on it, there is no way to do it "right". The cookie will crumble the way it does, and there is not much JD can do about it. Just like I am sure Jags will also try to win on Sunday. Heck, they almost won a week ago, missing what would be a winning FG as time expired. It just happened the way it did, and JD did what he could, but is not to blame for the disaster against Rams.
What should make you question Douglas is the fact that the roster was intended to be somewhat competitive. Along with rolling into the season being content with Alex Lewis and and Van Roten as the starting guards while cutting Winters and letting Robbie Anderson walk for Perriman. But he gets some more time. I'm usually in the mindset of giving GMs around three years. Regardless of who the QB is next year I'd like to see this roster get significantly better and the team get to the five win mark or better. If we're staring at 2-14 next year then we should be much more concerned. Aa far as tanking is concerned? It's too hard of a sport to force it to happen. NFL careers are short, guys must play hard to try to earn their next contracts and protect themselves from injury. And sometimes, a team just comes out flat as hell even if they have the much better team. It was the Todd Bowles special and it happened to the Rams yesterday.
I’m questioning my faith in fellow Jet fans, I have never seen such an overreaction and we have been through many of them. Guys are acting like TL was going to win every SB for the next 5 years. Guy could have gotten injured and his career would be over. I’m all for freedom of speech and I get this is a forum where people share their opinions but damn these threads are getting more depressing by the day. See you guys Sunday, have a great week everyone.
Doesn't have the power to do those things or does have the power but didn't have the balls to do so? I don't think any of us know which is the case to be fair. Being a great GM involves doing things that sometimes raise eyebrows but are for the good of the team long term.
Actively tanking is not in the best interest of the franchise. Believe me, I wanted them to go 0-16 as well and have probably been rooting for it to happen longer than I should have been, but once a franchise actively begins trying to lose, it sets a culture that permeates the franchise and sets the example to the employees of the organization that losing is something that is not only tolerated, but encouraged. That can't be allowed to happen. It would set the franchise back even more than missing out on Trevor Lawrence.
Not to be snarky, but I want to see the actual evidence these media sources have that show Douglas was tanking. I think most people - myself included - have no clue what Douglas is thinking or planning. If I had to guess, I'd say that he has had a blueprint from Day 1 and he's sticking to that, and I don't think he had any particular names - like Trevor Lawrence - penciled in on it. He's going to build a foundation the way he learned from Ozzie and others, and he's not going to be distracted by short term results, or who happens to be in the draft that everyone is claiming is the Second Coming. In principle I believe this is the right way to build a sustainable winner. From a selfish standpoint I want him to be much more aggressive and deliver a winner ASAP, even though I've seen that movie before and know how it ends (badly). It's fun to try and predict what he'll do, or figure out what I think he should do, but in the end I have nowhere near the amount of knowledge and information he has, so who am I kidding? For now I do trust Douglas. But I do NOT trust the Johnsons. And I do NOT assume that Gase will be fired, even though it should be blindingly obvious that he's the biggest problem (beyond the owners of course) on the team. If he isn't fired, I'll definitely step away from them until such time they contend for the SB, or I die, whichever comes first. I won't root for another team.
So I've mentioned this on some other threads: I believe that ownership/management thought we would easily lose vs. Rams and Browns. They assumed this and didn't meddle.They are both strong units and needed the wins against us. I do, however, believe that if we walked into NE at 0-15 and it was a 1 win Jacks team on our backs, ownership would have instructed Gase to hold some guys out and try some younger guys. To be fair, we should have won 2-3 games this year as well, easily the Raiders game so it's not like this is a complete anomaly. Ultimately, this is upsetting and I don't think Jacks will win another unfortunately. I think it will hurt less if we win out, because then this all would have just happened anyway. If we finish with 1 win, it will feel oddly more SOJ.
"When I first met Sam's parents in the first preseason game, I promised them I was going to do everything in my power to take care of Sam with protection and playmakers." -Joe Douglas
Jacksonville is going to beat Chicago or Indy and everyone will love Joe Douglas when he crushes another draft.
Minshew torched that Indy D in week one and Indy's D is playing worse now than they were in week 1. And who knows if the Bears will get good Trubisky or bad Trubisky.
WHO ??? I doubt that the Johnsons even KNOW who Trevor Lawrence is. Look, we're ALL frustrated by what happened on Sunday....but I get the organizational pickle that the Jets and Douglas are in. Is the GM supposed to tell the Coach to rest starters ? Is he supposed to tell him to deliberately lose ? Jax started 3 QBs because of injuries.....our QB(s) are healthy. I don't think this is like the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1984, when the GM went down to the locker room after the 2nd period, leading 3-1, and yelled at his coach..."What the hell are you doing !!!???"
