Baltimore should have an interest in bringing Joe Douglas back to the Ravens front office after he was fired by the New York Jets
The Ravens are always diligent about having a solid front office and player personnel group, and a former architect could be available. Joe Douglas was fired by the New York Jets on Tuesday after amassing a 30-64 record as the team’s general manager.
The move comes several weeks after the team fired head coach Robert Saleh following a 2–3 start. Saleh finished his tenure in New York with a 20–36 (.357) regular season record overall.
The Jets requested permission to interview Douglas and hired him over then-Chicago Bears Assistant Director of Player Personnel Champ Kelly, New Orleans Saints Director of Pro Scouting Terry Fontenot, Minnesota Vikings Assistant General Manager George Paton, and Seattle Seahawks Director of Player Personnel Scott Fitterer.
Before joining the Jets in 2019, Douglas was a longtime scout with the Baltimore Ravens before becoming an executive with the Chicago Bears and Philadelphia Eagles. Douglas began his NFL career in the Ravens personnel department in 2000 and worked there until 2015.
Douglas joined the Eagles franchise in 2016 and was responsible for running the Eagles draft board and scouting department, turning the latter into the best in the NFL.
Douglas quickly developed a reputation around the league as a critical cog in Howie Roseman’s front office while playing a role in constructing the Eagles’ Super Bowl LII-winning team and the deep roster for the 2019 season.
Douglas drafted Derek Barnett and Andre Dillard for the Philadelphia Eagles while he was the team’s general manager from 2017–2019. Rasul Douglas, Dallas Goedert, Josh Sweat, and Jordan Mailata are just a few of the players that Douglas played a part in the Eagles’ drafting.
Douglas amassed a dismal 30-64 record since taking over as Jets GM and could return to Philadelphia or Baltimore in the offseason.
Now, both Douglas and Saleh are unemployed because they gave Rodgers undue faith he didn’t deserve. On Tuesday, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that the Jets had fired Douglas just about a month after they jettisoned Saleh for the same “Rodgers let us down … badly” reasons.
If you weren’t born yesterday, you saw this news coming awhile ago:
More change in New York: Jets now have fired GM Joe Douglas, sources tell ESPN.
Last month, head coach Robert Saleh. Now, Douglas.
On some level, I do understand the inclination to label Douglas another Rodgers scapegoat while the woeful Jets flounder. Rodgers is one of the most prominent figures in football history. He has built up such a tremendous cache of goodwill over nearly two decades as a professional quarterback (on the field) that it would probably take a lot for an owner like Woody Johnson to ever (completely) punt on the (imaginary) possibilities he presents.
But I don’t think Douglas is a Rodgers scapegoat that lets the future Hall of Famer get off scot-free for incinerating any hope this Jets regime once had. That sentiment applied much more to Saleh, who was a vessel for Rodgers’ discontent because he had a precedent of showing that he thought he knew better than his coaches over the years. Saleh was someone who never vibed with Rodgers, so the Jets were happy to throw him under the bus without a second thought when their season still, technically, wasn’t over.
At 3-8, Douglas going down with the ship now feels very different. This is the Jets cutting everyone who bought Rodgers’ brazen snake oil loose without a second thought. It’s ownership making a tacit acknowledgment that acquiring a (then) semi-washed diva like Rodgers for multiple high-end draft picks was a mistake which wasted everyone’s time with the organization.
How do I know this for certain?
Well, dearest readers, that’s because Rodgers — a year after tearing his Achilles, mind you — is having the worst statistical season of his career.
Rodgers hasn’t thrown for 300 yards in a game all season. (The last time he threw for 300 yards in a game was in December 2021.) He’s also averaging his lowest yards per attempt and has his lowest passer rating since his two initial non-starter seasons in Green Bay in … 2005 and 2006. This is beyond a quarterback struggling. This is a player who is a hollow husk of the all-world talent he once was, now at the helm of the NFL’s 17th-ranked offense on an expected points added (EPA) per play basis. Any time you might think the Jets have a modicum of hope, at this point, Rodgers throws it away himself.
And I think it’d be silly to assert that Johnson and Jets ownership doesn’t recognize this grim reality. Rodgers will be 42 come December of next year. He has just one year left on his current contract. The Jets, as it stands, have the No. 7 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. Given the way Gang Green is in a complete nosedive now, don’t be surprised if that draft selection ends up being a top-five pick with the next Jets regime sticking its neck out for a new young quarterback to develop while Rodgers plays his usual brand of high-profile obscurity. That is, if they even keep him around for another season.
Nonetheless, until Rodgers’ fate is decided, the Jets will offload every way-too-willing sycophant who dared trust him in the first place. Without question. The likely next suspect on the list? Offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett, who has sworn by Rodgers’ antics for the last half-decade like a lowly barnacle attaches itself to the hull of a well-worn ship.
In the coming weeks, if I were Hackett, I would make sure to have my bags packed. Just in case. The Jets’ purge of everything and everyone even somewhat connected to Rodgers has likely only just begun.
Philadelphia should have an interest in bringing Joe Douglas back to the Eagles front office after he was fired by the New York Jets
The Eagles are always diligent about having a strong front office and player personnel group, and a former architect could be available. Joe Douglas was fired by the New York Jets on Tuesday after amassing a 30-64 record as the team’s general manager.
The move comes several weeks after the team fired head coach Robert Saleh following a 2–3 start. Saleh finished his tenure in New York with a 20–36 (.357) regular season record overall.
The Jets requested permission to interview Douglas and hired him over then-Chicago Bears Assistant Director of Player Personnel Champ Kelly, New Orleans Saints Director of Pro Scouting Terry Fontenot, Minnesota Vikings Assistant General Manager George Paton, and Seattle Seahawks Director of Player Personnel Scott Fitterer.
Before joining the Jets in 2019, Douglas was a longtime scout with the Baltimore Ravens before becoming an executive with the Chicago Bears and Philadelphia Eagles.
Douglas joined the Eagles franchise in 2016 and was responsible for running the Eagles draft board and scouting department, turning the latter into the best in the NFL.
Douglas quickly developed a reputation around the league as a critical cog in Howie Roseman’s front office while playing a role in constructing the Eagles’ Super Bowl LII-winning team and the deep roster for the 2019 season.
Douglas drafted Derek Barnett and Andre Dillard for the Philadelphia Eagles while he was the team’s general manager from 2017–2019. Rasul Douglas, Dallas Goedert, Josh Sweat, and Jordan Mailata are just a few of the players that Douglas played a part in the Eagles drafting.
Douglas amassed a dismal 30-64 record since taking over as Jets GM and could return to Philadelphia or Baltimore in the offseason.
Joe Douglas had to go, but will his firing actually fix the Jets? (no.)
Joe Douglas had to go. In five-plus seasons as the New York Jets general manager, his rosters put together a 30-64 record. His teams never won more than seven games.
There were extenuating circumstances, of course. His first head coach was Adam Gase, a man constructed solely of Monster energy drinks and pizza grease who coached up to his constitution. Zach Wilson was incredible throwing Pro Day passes against theoretical defenses and genuinely horrible against actual humans. Aaron Rodgers tore his Achilles four snaps into his 2023 season and saw the defense behind him collapse in 2024.
These were all things Douglas should have had the foresight or authority to correct. He did not, and now the Jets will almost certainly extend the longest postseason drought in major men’s professional sports. So, 11 weeks into a 3-8 campaign, he was fired.
This will change nothing for a team that alternates between betting on high risk quick fixes and sitting on potential long-term solutions long after they’ve become untenable. The Jets remain a team with a below average quarterback who turns 41 in two weeks. Their defense is less than the sum of its parts. New York is less a franchise than a ravenous black hole consuming all light that attempts to grace its boundary.
A knee-jerk reaction would be to blame Rodgers for this. The veteran was given the keys to the clubhouse and allowed to play Augustus as potential free agent and trade additions duked it out, waiting for his thumbs up or down. Former Green Bay Packers like Randall Cobb, Allen Lazard and Davante Adams joined the lineup to varying effect.
Cobb is currently a college football analyst. Lazard was overpaid ($11 million annually). Adams’s 6.0 yards per target are his lowest since 2015. Nathaniel Hackett, the offensive coordinator hand picked thanks in part to his past success with Rodgers, was stripped of his play calling duties.
But Douglas paved a road of disappointment well before Rodgers arrived. Sam Darnold went 7-6 in his first season with Douglas at GM and Gase as his head coach. Rather than prop him up with receiving help like the Buffalo Bills would do to unlock the best version of Josh Allen, the Jets opted to rebuild his offensive line in free agency.
They doled out contracts to George Fant, Connor McGovern and Greg Van Roten. Darnold’s blitz rate dropped, but his pressure and sack rates both rose. There was no reliable wideout to bail him out of tough situations because New York’s answer for Robbie Chosen’s departure was to sign Breshad Perriman.
Darnold went 2-10 that season and was summarily traded to the Carolina Panthers. Gase was fired. Douglas was paired with Robert Saleh, a rising young defensive-minded head coach and given the directive to find a franchise quarterback who could thrive along the rising tide of an improving defense. He landed on Zach Wilson, the second overall pick in a crop of cursed quarterbacks.
Wilson failed — an understandable miss, given the abject lack of success from guys selected after him like Trey Lance, Justin Fields and Mac Jones — and the directive changed. Douglas needed to save his job with a big swing. He landed on an unhappy quarterback nearing his 40th birthday and coming off his least efficient season as a starter. 2022 was a season in which the Packers missed the playoffs with a healthy Rodgers for only the second time in 13 years.
Rodgers can’t be faulted for playing like a 40-year-old just because Tom Brady broke our collective brains. His decline was obvious, even before landing on the fact the Jets offered him many of the same issues that chased him out of Green Bay, from offensive line concerns to wideout depth.
What was surprising was Saleh’s sacrifice after Week 5, a desperate bid to shake things up that instead destabilized New York’s defense. The Jets ranked sixth in expected points added (EPA) allowed per play under Saleh. Since firing him, they’re 30th, nestled between the Panthers and Dallas Cowboys in the rankings.
via rbsdm.com and the author.
Having exhausted the “blame Saleh” stack (which looks even worse in hindsight) and unwilling to alienate the quarterback upon which they once staked their future, the Jets had little recourse but to fire the architect of it all. Douglas could have survived these events in a vacuum, but at some point bad luck gives way to incompetence. It’s easy to fire a general manager who was given more than five years to turn things around and couldn’t even win a third of his games.
This does not fix the organizational rot that existed before Douglas and threatens to linger long into the future. All evidence suggests building around Rodgers was a mistake. Douglas’s replacement will have to walk on eggshells around the veteran quarterback, all the while knowing he could shave money from a below-average salary cap situation by releasing the former four-time MVP. He’ll likely be tasked with using New York’s pending top-10 draft pick to either find his next franchise quarterback (in a draft filled with flawed prospects) or a playmaker who may not find his rhythm in the NFL until Rodgers is gone.
The Jets should not be as bad as they are. There are several genuinely good young players around which they should build. Instead, the franchise’s insistence on throwing good money after bad has left a team with Super Bowl hopes staring at a 3-8 record. Maybe things get better without Douglas around. But odds are, he’s just another scapegoat for a team unable or unwilling to create the long-term fix it desperately needs.
Adam Schefter reports that the New York Jets are firing their general manager, Joe Douglas, a move that has been expected for weeks.
The Jets requested permission to interview Douglas and hired him over then-Chicago Bears Assistant Director of Player Personnel Champ Kelly, New Orleans Saints Director of Pro Scouting Terry Fontenot, Minnesota Vikings Assistant General Manager George Paton, and Seattle Seahawks Director of Player Personnel Scott Fitterer.
More change in New York: Jets now have fired GM Joe Douglas, sources tell ESPN.
Last month, head coach Robert Saleh. Now, Douglas.
Before joining the Jets in 2019, Douglas was a longtime scout with the Baltimore Ravens before becoming an executive with the Chicago Bears and Philadelphia Eagles.
Douglas joined the Eagles franchise in 2016 and was responsible for running the Eagles draft board and scouting department, turning the latter into the best in the NFL.
Douglas quickly developed a reputation around the league as a critical cog in Howie Roseman’s front office while playing a role in constructing the Eagles’ Super Bowl LII-winning team and the deep roster for the 2019 season.
Douglas has amassed a dismal 30-64 record since taking over as Jets GM.
Douglas could return to Philadelphia or Baltimore in the offseason.
Takeaways from Jets’ Joe Douglas interview after 2024 NFL trade deadline
The New York Jets were one of the teams active at the 2024 NFL trade deadline.
The Jets (3-6) ended their experiment with wide receiver Mike Williams, trading him to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Most point to two reasons as to why the Jets agreed to ship out Williams.
First, he was behind the eight ball due to his late arrival as he continued to recover from a 2023 ACL injury with the Los Angeles Chargers throughout most of the offseason. Other players got more involved in New York’s offense in that time.
Like others, Jets general manager Joe Douglas pointed to these reasons why he decided to ship Williams to Pittsburgh.
“This is a great opportunity for him to have a fresh start,” Douglas told reporters on Wednesday. ” It’s a move we wouldn’t have made had we not felt good about the guys we have in the room.”
“Us acquiring a player like Davante gives us the flexibility,” he added.
The Jets ended up landed a 2025 fifth-round draft pick for Williams in the trade.
Here are four more takeaways from Douglas’ interview following the 2024 NFL trade deadline:
Robert Saleh’s dismissal
(Getty)
When the Jets fired head coach Robert Saleh, team owner Woody Johnson was the one in the spotlight answering for the decision. Johnson did note that Douglas was in the know but the final say was from the owner.
New York’s GM continued to toe that party line when asked about Saleh’s dismissal, saying: “I don’t really have anything to add.”
“All my energy, all of my focus has been on doing whatever I can to help Brick, his staff & the locker room turn this thing around. So that’s kind of where I’m at.”
“I know Woody spoke afterwards, I don’t really have anything to add”
Like everyone else at 1 Jets Drive, Douglas did not imagine his team would be sitting at a 3-6 record at this point in the season. Douglas did express some belief moving forward, though… and credited Ulbrich in the process:
“Not where anyone envisioned us being right now at 3-6 coming out of training camp”
3 position needs for the Jets at the 2024 NFL trade deadline:
The 2024 NFL trade deadline has arrived on Nov. 5 at 4 p.m.
At a 3-6 record, it’s unclear what direction the New York Jets could go. New York would have to rip off plenty of wins in the second half of the season to stay relevant, but as other moves have suggested, the front office with general manager Joe Douglas is “all in” on this year’s team.
And on top of that, they have not been afraid to make a deal after already doing so with wide receiver Davante Adams.
So could another trade be on the way?
If so, here are three positions the Jets could consider adding to at the trade deadline:
Tight end
(Imagn)
Tyler Conklin had back-to-back weeks with touchdowns for the Jets offense in Week 7 and 8. However, he reverted back to his usual levels in New York’s win over the Houston Texans with one catch for a loss of three yards. On top of that, Conklin had not scored a touchdown prior to those two since October 2022.
The Jets could stand to improve at the tight end position overall as well, as Pro Football Focus only grades Conklin as a 59.2 overall so far in 2024. Via their metrics, that’s good for only the 46th best tight end in the NFL. He’s not the best blocker.
Defensive tackle
(Imagn)
Aside from former top-draft pick Quinnen Williams, the Jets defense has gotten spotty play from the interior of their defensive line this year. Leki Fotu has struggled to be that run stopper New York needs… and his difficulties staying healthy and on the field have not helped. He’s already back on injured reserve for a second time since the offseason due to a knee injury.
Offensive line
(Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)
While the Jets do have some younger pieces on their offensive line, others are not. Some of those veterans have had plenty of injury struggles throughout the 2024 season such as tackle Morgan Moses.
Offensive line depth is key in the NFL and is hard to come by. Like many others, New York does not have the best depth here considering first-round rookie tackle, Olu Fashanu, played guard against the Texans.
Fashanu admitted after the game that he had never lined up as a guard… ever. Not college and never even in high school. Depth would be nice, especially since quarterback Aaron Rodgers’ mobility has been under the spotlight this season.
Joe Douglas made another big name acquisition for the Jets. History isn’t on his side.
New York Jets general manager Joe Douglas is not familiar with success. This is an experience roughly on par with the Jets’ post-2010 existence.
It’s been nearly 14 years since New York’s last postseason invite. It’s been more than eight years since the Jets had a winning record. Douglas has been the roster-building architect behind six of those seasons. He’s watched two different coaches he was supposed to help guide to glory wind up fired.
He drafted Zach Wilson. He made Le’Veon Bell a “home run pickup,” per ESPN’s phrasing. He shipped off multiple high value draft picks for a 39-year-old quarterback coming off his least efficient season as a pro, then watched year one of his great experiment crumble thanks to a torn Achilles four plays into the season.
Douglas has cast his lot with Aaron Rodgers, a four-time MVP whose stature on the field rivals his presence off it. Since 2023, this has led to a 2-4 record in games the veteran has finished. But with the AFC East unsettled and an easy schedule ahead, New York’s season is far from over.
So, in dire need of a winning season to save his job, Douglas made a common sense move. He took a quarterback who has built an identity around reuniting with former teammates — see Allen Lazard and Randall Cobb — and reunited him with one of the best he’s ever had. Enter Davante Adams.
Adams was a common sense pickup, a move that can improve the league’s 22nd-ranked offense while keeping a frustrated star happy. By giving up a third round pick that could, but probably won’t, become a second-rounder, New York added a three-time All-Pro wide receiver who can fill the role Mike Williams has struggled to live up to this fall.
Will Adams fix things in a season where Rodgers has displayed bursts of his old MVP form but failed to sustain it? He should at least make them better.
The former Green Bay Packer and Las Vegas Raider turns 32 years old in December. His impact has waned since his stellar 2022. His yards per route run have slipped from 2.36 — ninth-best in the NFL — to 1.96 in 2023 to 1.63 this fall. Those numbers have been muted by uneven quarterback play and the hamstring injury that limited him to three games to start the season, but it’s still not a trend you want to see from a skill player on the wrong side of 30.
The most likely outcome is Adams emerges for something like five catches and 60 yards per game while making some clutch third down grabs. The optimistic version sees him explode for a few throwback performances while freeing up Garrett Wilson to thrive as Rodgers shakes off any notion of age-based regression and fires the clock back to 2021. The pessimistic one is, well, we’ve seen what Douglas’s other high profile wideout addition this season has done. Mike Williams has 10 catches in six games.
History suggests it will be the latter. Douglas has overseen a team that’s gone 29-60 under his stewardship. While some of his additions have been difference makers — C.J. Mosley! Sauce Gardner! Quincy Williams! — his track record with once-proven veterans is lacking.
Bell was a disaster. Breshad Perriman had 30 receptions as a Jet. Carl Lawson was the team’s highest paid player in 2021 and he rewarded that faith with seven total sacks.
Corey Davis got $27 million guaranteed and never rose above WR3 status. C.J. Uzomah got a bigger guarantee than anyone in New York’s 2022 free agent class and had 29 catches in green and white.
Dalvin Cook was washed in 2023. 2024’s two highest-salaried additions, Williams and Javon Kinlaw, were each detriments in the Jets’ Week 6 loss to the Buffalo Bills.
This means Adams may be Douglas’s last swing in an attempt to keep a job he has yet to prove he can do effectively. But most of his punches fail to land, especially when it comes to skill players (Allen Lazard’s four-year, $44 million contract is starting to look better, but that may be a result of Rodgers’ lobbying more than an actual Douglas decision).
For the Jets’ general manager to keep his job, he needs more than low-stakes optimism. He needs Rodgers and Adams to link up like it’s 2021 all over again. That’s a big risk for two players each aging out of their primes. But Douglas loves laying a bet on veterans on the downslope of their careers, even if they haven’t panned out for him.
NFL rules state that the New York Jets can’t trade Haason Reddick back to the Philadelphia Eagles within a two year period
There’s been some talk of Haason Reddick being open to a return to Philadelphia to play for the Eagles, and while it sounds good, it won’t happen via a trade.
Reddick has yet to play a down for the Jets, while Philadelphia lacks a closer or dominant pass rusher off the edge. What looks like a simple resolution of Joe Douglas trading Reddick back to Howie Roseman can’t happen.
Per NFL rules, teams can’t trade a player and reacquire him via trade until two years elapse. If Reddick were to return to the Eagles, he’d have to be released or traded to Philadelphia by another team that would have to acquire the pass rusher from the Jets.
Last season, Reddick finished 15th in the league with 11 sacks and made his second straight Pro Bowl.
He recorded double-digit sacks for the fourth consecutive season, leading his team in that category and tying for 15th in the NFL. Outside of the sacks, though, Reddick’s numbers were poor by his standards.
His 38 tackles were the second-lowest mark of his career, and he didn’t force or recover a fumble after forcing five and recovering three last season.
