Creeping change is giving way to sweeping change for the wreckage that is the New York Jets.
Six weeks after terminating former head coach Robert Saleh following a 2-3 start to a season fueled by massive expectations, the NYJ fired general manager Joe Douglas on Tuesday, signaling a complete overhaul of an organization that was expected to – at minimum – end its league-long 14-year playoff drought in 2024. Douglas’ contract was set to expire in 2025, but the Jets are making a clean break now.
Former Cleveland Browns GM Phil Savage will replace Douglas in an interim capacity for the remainder of this season.
‘Today, I informed Joe Douglas he will no longer serve as the General Manager of the New York Jets,’ owner Woody Johnson relayed in a statement. ‘I want to thank Joe for his commitment to the Jets over the last six years and wish him and his family the best moving forward.
‘We will begin the process to identify a new General Manager immediately.’
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Hired to replace Mike Maccagnan after the 2019 NFL draft, Douglas ends his run with a 30-64 record and nary a winning season. He previously worked in the front offices of the Baltimore Ravens, Chicago Bears and Philadelphia Eagles.
His tenure certainly wasn’t a complete failure. The apex seemingly occurred two years ago when Douglas landed cornerback Sauce Gardner, wideout Garrett Wilson, linebacker Jermaine Johnson II and running back Breece Hall in a widely hailed 2022 draft. All have been highly capable to elite players, though Johnson tore his Achilles in September coming off a Pro Bowl campaign in 2023. One challenge for the team’s next GM will be to figure out how and if to retain these players, who are all eligible for contract extensions following this season.
Douglas also hit on players like nickelback Michael Carter II and pass rushers Will McDonald IV and Bryce Huff, who wasn’t drafted but signed a huge free agent deal with Philadelphia earlier this year.
However, like so many failed front office executives, Douglas’ inability to solve the quarterback position ultimately undermined him. He chose to move on from Sam Darnold’s estimable potential, rather than build the roster around it – All-Pro-caliber players like offensive tackle Penei Sewell, wideout Ja’Marr Chase or linebacker Micah Parsons were options – and instead reset by using the No. 2 pick of the 2021 draft on Zach Wilson. But the BYU product was so bad in his first two seasons that the team traded for four-time league MVP Aaron Rodgers in 2023.
That, of course, opened a whole new can of worms – from the Achilles injury that cut Rodgers down four snaps into his team debut last year, to the ongoing failure to adequately protect him, to the perception he has too much influence in team operations, to the offensive gridlock borne of the hiring his good friend, Nathaniel Hackett, who is now only the coordinator in name amid the unit’s ongoing efficacy issues, to Rodgers’ own diminished abilities given his age and mounting injuries. In addition to Hackett, Douglas brought in several of Rodgers’ former Green Bay Packers teammates but the Jets’ haven’t enjoyed many notable contributions from them.
Matters weren’t helped when the team opted to let Huff – among the game’s premier situational pass rushers if not an every-down player – go and instead trade for Eagles linebacker Haason Reddick, who ultimately held out for the first half of the season when he and the Jets failed to reach a longer-term contractual accord. The Jets were widely roasted for the Reddick standoff given some kind of accord could have been cemented as part of the terms that cost Douglas a conditional third-round pick.
Still, New York won two of its first three games – even as it became apparent that the offense was limited and Rodgers had not recaptured his MVP form – before falling apart. Two subsequent losses cost Saleh his job, and the club has since gone 1-5 under interim coach Jeff Ulbrich.
Woody Johnson will now be on the lookout for a new GM/coach combo and maybe another quarterback, too, even though Rodgers – he turns 41 next month – recently expressed his intention to play in 2025, the final year of his contract.
Aside from a mandate to win the team’s first Super Bowl since its famed 1968 season, the Jets’ next decision makers must also decide what to do with recently acquired wideout Davante Adams and will likely be faced with further changes to the offensive line and the once formidable defense, which is set to shed several players into free agency next year, including Reddick.
Losers of seven of their past eight, including a crushing defeat to the Indianapolis Colts at home on Sunday, the Jets just entered their bye week. No telling what else will change on the other side of it.
This story has been updated with new information.
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Follow USA TODAY Sports’ Nate Davis on X, formerly Twitter, @ByNateDavis.