Takeaways from Joe Douglas’ season-ending press conference

Here are five takeaways from Joe Douglas’s season ending press conference.

With the Jets’ regular season complete, it’s time to look ahead to their first offseason under general manager Joe Douglas.

Douglas was hired by the Jets in June after the team fired Mike Maccagnan in May. However, Douglas couldn’t implement the players he really wanted with free agency and the draft already in the past. He made a few moves, including signing Ryan Kalil — which was a failure — and trading Leonard Williams to the Giants.

Now his work is cut out for him with free agency and the draft looming. Let’s take a look at what Douglas had to say at his season-ending press conference on Tuesday.

No commitment Le’Veon Bell will be back

Adam Gase said on Monday to ask Douglas if he wanted Le’Veon Bell back and we still don’t have a definitive answer.

Douglas said that his personal experience with Bell has been very positive, but hesitated to say whether or not Bell will be back in 2020. Douglas said that if a team calls about Bell’s availability, he will listen as he does on any player. Douglas doesn’t know how those trade conversations would go, though.

It sounds like there is a 50-50 shot that Bell does get dealt in the offseason. If he gets the right value for Bell and that team will take his contract, Douglas will pull the trigger. If not, Douglas seems more than happy to keep Bell for another season.

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Jets CB Arthur Maulet fined for unnecessary roughness in win over Steelers

The NFL fined Jets cornerback Arthur Maulet $21,056 for an unnecessary roughness penalty in New York’s 16-10 win over the Steelers.

The NFL fined Jets cornerback Arthur Maulet $21,056 for an unnecessary roughness penalty in New York’s 16-10 win over the Steelers last weekend.

Maulet dragged down Steelers wide receiver James Washington with a horse-collar tackle. Washington hobbled directly off the field to the trainer’s table after the ugly play.

Washington returned to Sunday’s contest and caught five passes of his eight targets for 41 yards. He missed out on a chance for possibly the game-winning score when Jets safety Marcus Maye broke up what would have been a 44-yard touchdown on Pittsburgh’s final drive.

Despite the NFL digging into his pocket, Maulet has been a nice addition to the Jets secondary with the team reeling at the cornerback position.

Formerly with the New Orleans Saints and Indianapolis Colts, Maulet signed a reserve/future contract with New York back in January 2019. In Week 3, Maulet made his first mark in green and white by returning a muffed punt for a touchdown in the Jets 30-14 loss in New England.

New York subsequently waived Maulet on Oct. 15 but re-signed him to the team’s practice squad. The Jets promoted him to the active roster at the end of the month with Trumaine Johnson placed on injured reserve and Daryl Roberts sidelined.

Maulet has nursed a calf injury of his own but has made the most of his opportunity, despite his ugly tackle in Week 15. It would be surprising if he wasn’t back with Gang Green in 2020, being a camp body at the very least.

Marcus Maye is Jets Wire’s Player of the Game vs. Steelers

Marcus Maye is the player of the game following his strong performance against the Steelers.

If it wasn’t for Marcus Maye’s performance against the Steelers on Sunday, the Jets’ 16-10 win could’ve very well been a loss.

Maye made two huge plays with an interception in the endzone and a pass defense that could’ve resulted in a game-winning touchdown for Pittsburgh. For Maye’s effort, he is Jets Wire’s player of the game for Week 16 of the regular season.

Maye played a huge part in this victory with the two plays mentioned above. On the interception, the Steelers were inside the red zone, but Hodges decided to loft a ball into the endzone and Maye came sprinting over to make a leaping catch to keep Pittsburgh off the board.

As for the pass defense, that came on the Steelers’ final drive. Pittsburgh needed a touchdown to tie the game and James Washington had one-on-one coverage with Maye, who was able to bat the ball away to prevent the touchdown to secure the win.

The third-year free safety has finally put together a healthy season after an injury-riddled 2018 campaign. Maye has played well alongside Jamal Adams with 58 total tackles, seven pass defenses and one interception.

With Maye and Adams, the Jets have one of the best safety duos in the league. They both find ways to make big plays and are cornerstone pieces for New York’s future.

Marcus Maye, Quinnen Williams among Jets’ Studs & Duds win over Steelers

The Jets did what they had to do to knock off the Steelers in an ugly 16-10 win at MetLife Stadium on Sunday.

Adam Gase told his team that if they were going to pull off an upset against the Steelers in Week 16, it would come in low-scoring fashion.

The Jets did just that, barely pulling out an ugly victory over Pittsburgh by a final score of 16-10. Nothing was pretty about the Jets’ win, but the defense stood on its head yet again though, intercepting Devlin Hodges twice.

The Jets’ gameplan was to not turn over the football. The team’s only turnover came right before halftime and led to the Steelers’ only touchdown of the game. Sam Darnold and the Jets offense were unspectacular, but they did just enough to get Le’Veon Bell and Hines Ward a victory against their former team.

Here are the best and worst players from the Jets’ latest win.

Stud: S Marcus Maye

While Marcus Maye has played an above-average center field position in the secondary for Gang Green, he’s been forced to play out of position and has subsequently struggled.

Fortunately for Maye, with Jamal Adams returning to the starting lineup, he was able to slide over to his natural position and made the Steelers pay. Maye’s interception of Devlin Hodges in the end zone was the final straw for Mike Tomlin, who yanked Hodges in favor of Mason Rudolph until an injury forced Rudolph out of action.

In addition to Maye’s third career interception, he added four tackles in the Jets 16-10 win over the Steelers. He also made a game-saving play in coverage, breaking up a game-winning touchdown catch from James Washington with less than a minute remaining in the game.

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Jamison Crowder, Marcus Maye among Jets’ Studs & Duds in Thursday night loss to Ravens

The unstoppable force that is the Baltimore Ravens steamrolled the New York Jets in a 42-21 primetime win on Thursday night.

The Ravens came into Thursday night’s matchup as two-touchdown favorites and there is no question why. Baltimore clinched its second consecutive AFC North title with Thursday’s 42-21 win over New York.

Baltimore has the most dominant offense in the league, while its defense isn’t afraid to punch you in the mouth. The Ravens offense operated at a video game pace, even with Lamar Jackson hobbled by a quad injury and made a mockery of the Jets No. 2 ranked run defense, running 34 times for 218 yards and a score.

Here are the best and worst players from the Jets’ latest loss.

Stud: WR Jamison Crowder

After dropping a wide-open touchdown pass, Jamison Crowder made a tougher catch to connect with Sam Darnold for his third touchdown reception of the season.

With Demaryius Thomas sidelined and Ryan Griffin placed on injured reserve, Crowder immediately filled the role of Darnold’s go-to receiver as he has numerous times this season.

Crowder caught six passes for 90 yards and two scores in losing fashion.

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Jets vs. Dolphins: Standings implications among 4 things to know in Week 14 clash

The Jets surprisingly lead the NFL in fewest rushing yards allowed, but that will be the least of their concerns in their Week 14 clash.

How worse could the Jets get?

Well, a second loss to the Dolphins would certainly push the Jets below rock-bottom in an already-disappointing season. Though the playoffs are essentially unattainable in 2019, pride still exists and that’s what the Jets will be playing for in Miami in Week 14.

Injuries struck the Jets hard again this week, with starters Le’Veon Bell, Brian Poole and Jamal Adams all unlikely to play. That leaves only five players on the team who have played every game this season, as pointed out by The Athletic’s Connor Hughes. It’s not an excuse for poor play, but certainly a huge factor in the Jets’ pitiful 4-8 record.

Here are four things to know for Week 14.

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Jets secondary vulnerable against Dolphins with key pieces missing

The Jets secondary will be vulnerable to the Dolphins this Sunday as they’re missing a ton of key pieces.

The Jets secondary is as depleted as it has ever been this season.

New York will likely be without its star safety Jamal Adams due to an ankle injury. Meanwhile, both Brian Poole (concussion) and Arthur Maulet (calf) are trending towards being out as well. That means the Jets will have only two members of their secondary playing in Sunday’s game that started in Week 1 in Marcus Maye and Darryl Roberts.

In other words, the unit is looking extremely vulnerable heading into Week 14.

Defensive coordinator Gregg Williams has already coached up this defense to be respectable, but this might be his biggest challenge yet.

“He’ll have to get creative this week, which I’m sure he doesn’t mind,”Adam Gase said of Williams.

We could be seeing multiple players playing in different positions on Sunday. With Adams out, Roberts could see some time at safety as he played at that position for five games last season. As for the slot, Nate Hairston will have to play on the inside. To replace Maulet, the Jets will have to slide Maurice Canady to the outside. It’s not an ideal situation, but there’s not much else they can do to fix this.

“You have to have the contingency plans of what if somebody goes out, how are we shuffling things around,” Gase said. “We’ve got a lot of guys that are going to be responsible for playing a few different positions.”

The last time the Dolphins faced the Jets, Ryan Fitzpatrick threw for 288 yards and three touchdowns in a win. That was when New York’s secondary was considered healthy. Since that game, Fitzpatrick has thrown for over 300 yards twice and wide receiver DeVante Parker has had over 100 receiving yards in two of his last three games. If Fitzpatrick and the rest of the Dolphins continue to play the way they have lately, the Jets’ defense will be in deep trouble.

“They’re throwing the ball, which I’m sure [Fitzpatrick] loves,” Gase said. “He had a good game last week. The last time we played him, we struggled to get him to turn the ball over and create enough pressure to make him uncomfortable. That’s the number one thing when you’re playing Fitzy is you’ve got to try to get to him, you’ve got to try to get him to make some mistakes and put pressure on him and make some of those throws tough.”