When Joe Douglas signed on to become Jets general manager last offseason, he inherited a roster absent of two of the most important facets of a winning football team.
Some share the belief that experience is overrated in professional football. If a team has the talent to win and a somewhat competent coaching staff, it should win regardless of the team’s average age or level of experience. The Jets, however, proved otherwise.
The average amount of NFL experience on New York’s roster last season was 3.4 years. Only 10 of the Jets’ 53 players were over the age of 30. Of those players, Kelvin Beachum, Steve McLendon, Bilal Powell and Demaryius Thomas were the only ones to assume prominent roles consistently throughout the year.
As the 2019 season progressed, it became apparent on a weekly basis that the Jets were missing something that every postseason team has plenty of. It wasn’t Sam Darnold’s bout with mononucleosis that forced him out of action for a month, or C.J. Mosley’ groin injury that kept him out nearly all year that led the Jets astray. It was the team’s lack of experience and the leadership abilities that come along with being a veteran.
Darnold’s stint on the sideline and Mosley’s absence at middle linebacker certainly played roles in New York’s historically bad start to the season, but the lack of experience and leadership on the roster was evident every week. Beachum and McLendon did their best to guide a young team through an extremely rough patch, but there is only so much two players can do.
This offseason, Douglas made it his mission to ensure that the Jets do not lack the necessary leadership and experience to be a contender any longer. Through a mix of young leaders and grizzled veterans, Douglas has loaded New York’s roster with a group that lines up with the culture he wants in place at One Jets Drive.
The Jets made nine picks in the 2020 NFL Draft. Five of those selections — La’Mical Perine, James Morgan, Cameron Clark, Bryce Hall and Braden Mann — were captains in college. All five were picked consecutively, a sign that Douglas is not messing around when it comes to filling his roster from top to bottom with high-character players eager to develop into leaders.
“I feel like we added a lot of quality football players and quality people,” Douglas told reporters after the draft.
Frank Gore and Joe Flacco, two of Douglas’ recent signings, have more valuable experience than all of New York’s 2019 roster combined. Gore has been around for nearly two decades and has played on some very good teams, including a 49ers squad that lost to Flacco’s Ravens in Super Bowl XLVII. Flacco, meanwhile, is a former Super Bowl MVP who was at the head of numerous elite teams in Baltimore.
Sure, not every veteran signing is foolproof. Regardless of who’s to blame, Kelechi Osemele caused Douglas more headaches in his brief time with the Jets than Douglas has probably experienced in his entire career. Ryan Kalil, through no fault of his own, signed with the Jets a month before the 2019 season and severely altered the chemistry on the offensive line, which hindered the unit’s ability to perform as it should. Likewise, not every young player is meant to lead. It’s not often that a player like Jamal Adams walks into the building with an alpha-dog mentality from day one.
Douglas is not going out and signing veterans or drafting former college captains for the sake of it, though. Douglas is signing veterans with a clear track record of being voices on and off the field. He is drafting players who have already proven they can win over a locker room and gain the respect of their teammates.
The Jets already had a decent amount of talent before this offseason. Now, it looks like they might finally have the leadership to supplement that talent. That doesn’t mean New York is heading to the postseason in 2020, but it sure does put it one step closer to accomplishing that goal.