In the NFL, Black Monday is a tradition in which owners fire general managers and head coaches the day after the regular season ends. Increasingly, owners are getting a head start by terminating coaches and general managers during the season. Our NFL Week 12 News discusses the New York Jets firing general manager Joe Douglas and how it impacts the rest of their season and the future.
Jets Owner Woody Johnson Strikes Again
Six weeks to the day in which Jets owner Woody Johnson unilaterally fired head coach Robert Saleh, he fired his GM Joe Douglas.
The Jets hired Douglas in June 2019. He accrued a record of 30-64. Despite an impressive past in player personnel for the Ravens and Eagles, he did not distinguish himself in New York. Of course, since it’s the Jets, there are extenuating circumstances that give him some semblance of plausible deniability.
Douglas missed the one key to any winning team: picking the right quarterback.
Armed with the “he wasn’t my guy” argument, he discarded Sam Darnold after the 2020 season. He drafted Zach Wilson with the second overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft. Wilson was selected ahead of Ja’Marr Chase and Micah Parsons, among others.
For the first time, Darnold is with a stable organization in Minnesota as its starter. He has a keen offensive mind — Kevin O’Connell — as his head coach. They’re going to the playoffs and he’ll make the Pro Bowl.
Wilson was an unmitigated disaster.
Douglas’ wonderful 2022 draft netting Sauce Gardner, Garrett Wilson, Breece Hall, and Jeremy Ruckert aside, his other draft results are poor. And a 30-64 record is a 30-64 record. It’s indefensible.
The Quarterback Problem
This situation with Aaron Rodgers mirrors former Jets head coach Eric Mangini and quarterback Brett Favre. Rodgers’ predecessor in Green Bay was a shadow of his former self in New York.
They traded for Favre when Mangini was trying to build a selfless team with a sum of its parts mentality. He had Favre forced on him by a starstruck owner. Favre — who wanted no part of New York — played injured late in the season. The team collapsed, and Mangini was terminated.
Rodgers wanted to be a Jet and quickly learned what that entailed.
Did Douglas want Rodgers? It doesn’t matter because the owner wanted the star QB and gave that star QB carte blanche to bring in players he wanted to play with. This is not an efficient power structure in any business, let alone the NFL.
How Does This Impact Their Future?
Questions will abound over who Johnson will hire and when. His history is not good.
Given Johnson’s political standing as a former U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom, he might be leaving day-to-day running of the team. President-elect Donald Trump could give him another plum role. Therefore, he might have done this now to hire the GM and coach before he leaves. It’s important to remember that his brother Christopher hired Saleh as head coach.
The team will likely move on from Rodgers after the season in part because a new GM/coach is not dealing with this nonsense.
For the remainder of 2024, the players have little to play for other than showing their wares to the league and staying healthy. The days of the Jets being inexplicably favored in their games based on past reputations are likely over, even against Jacksonville in Week 15.
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