Going into their bye week, the 3-8 New York Jets shockingly decided to fire their general manager Joe Douglas, highlighting an already awful 2024 season.
This firing comes just six weeks after the Jets parted ways with head coach Robert Saleh, ending his three and a half year tenure with the organization.
The Jets Road to 2024
The Jets were coming into the season as favorites to win the AFC East with many people expecting them to take a leap with a healthy Aaron Rodgers at the helm, and the belief that the Buffalo Bills and Miami Dolphins both regressed.
Expectations and preseason betting lines are funny things, they are oftentimes completely useless and hold no weight whatsoever, others they mean everything and can result in a man losing his job, hopelessness brought upon as a consequence of delusions of grandeur.
Growing up on Long Island has taught me a few things; taxes suck, our roads suck, and lastly the Jets suck. It doesn’t matter what the talking heads on ESPN want to project on a beaten down fanbase, shockingly the casino sharks of Atlantic City and Vegas do not have your best interest in mind.
This is the result most non-bias football fans had seen coming. Joe Douglas broke the cardinal rule of being a sports general manager, he was early.
The New York Jets were a laughing stock going into the 2019 offseason when they brought Douglas in. I remember Sam Darnold’s “seeing ghosts” game against the New England Patriots when the Jets were trailing 24-0 in October. After that 2019 season the Jets tried to tank for improvement and failed at bolstering their offense.
The 2021 draft proved vital for the New York Jets after a horrid 2-14 season missing out on Clemson’s standout quarterback Trevor Lawernce who went to the Jaguars, having to settle for the number two overall pick, Zach Wilson out of BYU.
The Jets defense progressed ridiculously fast becoming one of the best units in the league while having an inexperienced quarterback trying to learn how to play at the NFL level. What this did is put more pressure on the offense and subsequently the young quarterback they expected to lead them to the promised land.
He showed flashes of being good, but the media refused to ever acknowledge it seeking every opportunity to annihilate his confidence. There were times where Wilson showed genuine growth as a player even outplaying both Jalen Hurts and Patrick Mahomes, however he was overall a bad quarterback. One thing that gets lost on people is that Wilson always had a lopsided team.
The Jets under Douglas built a reliable defense first and then got a quarterback, then got skill players. When did they get an offensive line? Wilson was sacked 113 times in 34 games as a Jet. Going into the 2024 season questions regarding the Jets offensive line still persisted, perhaps even more so with a 41 year old Aaron Rodgers going under center.
When Joe Douglas attempted to rebuild the Jets he was probably better off taking offensive tackle Penei Sewell at number two instead of Wilson, Sewell going to the Lions was a massive catalyst in Detroit growing into one of the best teams currently in the NFL.
The Jets 2024 Season
The preseason predictions being favorable of the Jets were not completely without merit, 24 year old wide receiver Garrett Wilson, has been excellent for the Jets since being drafted 10th overall in the 2022 NFL Draft. The same draft Douglas selected running back Breece Hall 36th overall out of Iowa State.
Hall is having the worst season of his career but isn’t a bad running back, especially as an eligible receiver, averaging 8.7 yards per reception so far this season.
On paper this team shouldn’t be as bad their record suggests, there is talent. A major thing that people have overlooked is the penalties. The Jets have conceded the second most penalty yards in the league, forfeiting 689 yards so far this season, while being the sixth most penalized team with 77 total infractions.
In terms of players, many fans are fed up with veteran quarterback Aaron Rodgers. The former 4 time league MVP was expected to be the second coming of “Broadway Joe”, instead he has been all drama and no show.
Rodgers takes zero accountability for anything, most quarterbacks say “we” when they win, and a lot of “I” when they lose, when Rodgers gives a losing press conference very rarely is there anything that resembles contrition.
There were rumors that Rodgers and former head coach Robert Saleh were at odds. Supposedly Saleh wanted to strip offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett of play calling duties, angering Rodgers who requested the Jets bring in the former Broncos head coach, and Packers coordinator.
When the Jets fired Saleh, they instantly took Hackett’s play calling abilities away. The offense has performed better since this decision, however the defense under former defensive coordinator turned interim head coach, Jeff Ulbrich has regressed greatly.
Again the Jets can never be on the same page, their coaching staff and front office wasn’t on the same page as evidence by Saleh’s firing and team owner Wood Johnson saying “the firing was a long time coming”, their offense and defense are incapable of being equally good in the same game, they’re either equally bad or one is significantly better than the other.
The Jets After 2024
There are rumors that Aaron Rodgers will not be on the New York Jets for the 2025 season, I’m unsure how credible these rumors are but it is being reported by seemingly every NFL media member, with nobody saying otherwise.
Personally I’m not shocked if that’s the case, when people drop glass products in a store they usually walk away leaving it shattered and unattended, just like Rodgers and this Jets culture.
Rodgers wanted his coach (Hackett), he wanted his role players like Allen Lazard and Davante Adams, both of which are understandable demands, he does have the clout of a 4 time MVP and former Super Bowl MVP, I get it.
However, with all the chaos coming out of the Jets this year many Jets fans and the media have felt he hasn’t really done much to provide stability. The constant rumor and innuendo trickling into the media about him not liking certain personnel has grown to be frustrating,
Ultimately the deterioration of the Jets has fallen on Joe Douglas and owner Woody Johnson. They allowed the flashy name at quarterback to call the shots, and there are reports that they wanted to actually bench him back in week 4, a clear lack of any cohesion.
After seeing how a young agile Zach Wilson was fleeing for his life last year, I thought the Jets should have been more aggressive trying to get elite offensive line help, rather than trying to develop draft pick Olu Fashanu, or taking a flier on Alec Lindstrom, who has been a fringe main roster player. The Jets should have been more proactive in trying to win now with their line.
Rodgers is 41, he can’t evade defenders the way he used to. The Jets have allowed the 14th most sacks in the league this year with 26 for a total loss of 199 yards on sacks, the 11th most in the league. While these stats clearly aren’t the worst, these issues seem to rear their ugly head at the worst possible times.
I’m curious what direction the Jets are going to go in after this season. I would not be surprised if they decide to draft a quarterback this offseason to try and develop him for the future. I still firmly maintain my position that they should try to put the best possible line in front of the quarterback regardless of who is under center, a philosophy that has clearly worked for the Lions, Chiefs, Bills, and Ravens all of which are considered as some of the most elite teams in the league.
The Jets culture is a joke and I hope for the sake of the countless Jets fans I know, that they turn things around sooner rather than later, or at the very least have a clear direction.
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