MAKE BAD DAYS GO AWAY
Douglas didn’t create problems, but Jet fans count on him to fix them
Joe Douglas is fighting the past, present and future all at once, tasked to make everyone happy at a time when frustrations have bubbled to the surface for a star-crossed franchise. Although Rome wasn’t built in a day, the green-and-white clad Romans wish it were built years ago.
Douglas arrived on One Jets Drive nearly 10 months ago amid chaos and instability, a graduate of Everyman U. The Jets’ braintrust begrudgingly made him one the highest paid general managers for myriad reasons, hoping the wayward franchise finally found a compass.
It would be Douglas’ show in an idyllic universe where deadlines didn’t exist, the past was wiped from our memory and the angst felt by a loyal, sometimes jaded fanbase wasn’t relevant. However, the real world comes with annoyances that Douglas can’t side-step.
I can’t definitively say right now whether Douglas will be a success, failure, hero or flop, but he has the proper mindset, intellect and fortitude to have a chance to get this perpetually lost franchise on the right path.
He can be everything Jets fans want him to be… if he’s actually allowed to do his job. His vision will never come into focus if internal obstacles don’t disappear. There are barriers to success staring back at Douglas every day, harmful organizational influences that only serve to muddy the picture. Some are new, others have been around for far too long.
Douglas went down a relatively conservative fiscal road in free agency, prompting some to praise the slow and steady approach and others to wonder whether 2020 will be another lost season in a history full of them.
Douglas is in the precarious position of stitching together a winner at the proper pace. It’s Year One for him. It’s Year 51 for loyalists. It’s the beginning for him. It’s been an agonizing lifetime for everyone else.
So, what should Douglas do? Press his foot on the accelerator to fast-track a rebuild at the risk of it all crumbling before reaching the mountaintop?
Douglas is principled, authentic and stable if you ask those who have worked for or with him during his two-decade long football life. That doesn’t guarantee success in the big chair, of course, but it should matter when entrusting someone to eradicate decades of anguish.
Douglas has a keen understanding that he needs to work around mistakes from the past to set a solid course for the future.
Truth be told, he would have never given monster money to C.J. Mosley or Le’Veon Bell, but here they are. It’s lazy to place the blame solely on his predecessor when the head coach and ownership influenced one or both of those decisions.
Regardless, there are no winners in the blame game. It’s a waste of Douglas’ time.
So, what should we make of the litany of one-year contracts handed out by the new general manager in the past few weeks? Ten of the 14 free-agent deals were one-year pacts. Three of the remaining four were one-year commitments dressed up as three-year deals. Center Connor McGovern is the only newcomer essentially guaranteed a spot on the 2021 roster.
It’s unclear whether Douglas made the Jets markedly better in free agency. Gang Green remains in a holding pattern, infused by a bunch of guys on 16-game trial runs.
Douglas did what he felt was best given some of the constraints in free agency. The Jets made it clear to people that they were strapped for cash, which was either a prevarication or another nuisance that the new GM had to work around.
On the bright side, Douglas maximized his flexibility a year from now when he’ll have a mountain of salary cap space and perhaps an opportunity to hire his own head coach. However, owner Woody Johnson, who’s likely to return from his UK Ambassadorship by year’s end, will still have to give the green light on cash spending and a coaching search.
On the downside, continuity remains an issue. How many of this year’s free-agent additions will be around in 2021? How can Sam Darnold, the centerpiece of the franchise, ever grow with an everchanging supporting cast?
Douglas is a man of few words, but don’t let the emotional reticence fool you. He knows what the picture should look like. He just needs those around him to provide a real opportunity to paint his masterpiece.