Jets Country

Did New York Jets General Manager Deserve Shocking Firing?

Did New York Jets GM Joe Douglas deserve to lose his job?

Tyler Maher

Feb 28, 2023; Indianapolis, IN, USA; New York Jets general manager Joe Douglas during the NFL combine at the Indiana Convention Center.
Feb 28, 2023; Indianapolis, IN, USA; New York Jets general manager Joe Douglas during the NFL combine at the Indiana Convention Center. / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
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The New York Jets have not come close to meeting expectations this season, and several people have already lost their jobs because of it.

General manager Joe Douglas was the latest casualty of the Jets' debacle, getting fired earlier this week. He's been replaced by Phil Savage, who will serve as interim general manager after five years as a senior personnel advisor for New York.

Douglas follows former head coach Robert Saleh out the door. Owner Woody Johnson canned Saleh after Week 5 in an effort to save the Jets' season.

When that move failed and New York continued to spiral, Johnson axed Douglas during the team's bye week.

Based on the Jets' 1-5 record and deteriorating play since Saleh was let go, he clearly didn't deserve to lose his job. Did Douglas?

On the one hand, New York never had a winning season during Douglas' tenure as GM from 2019 to 2024. The Jets went 30-64 during that time and never won more than seven games in a season.

Douglas had ample time to build a winner around three separate quarterbacks (Sam Darnold, Zach Wilson and Aaron Rodgers), but he failed to do so. In particular, drafting Wilson and trading for Rodgers proved to be massive mistakes.

On the other hand, Douglas drafted fairly well, building one of the best defenses and young cores in the NFL. Many fans and analysts believe New York had a playoff-caliber roster the last few years, but that Rodgers and Wilson held the team back.

It's hard to blame Douglas for Wilson. The Jets screwed up their tank in 2020 by winning two of their final three games, squandering the first pick in the 2021 NFL Draft and missing out on Trevor Lawrence, who went to the Jacksonville Jaguars instead.

Wilson didn't work out, but neither did Trey Lance or Mac Jones. Justin Fields has been a mixed bag as well, proving how difficult it is to hit on young quarterbacks.

After Wilson flamed out, it's understandable why Douglas traded for a veteran in Rodgers rather than trying to develop another young QB. Unfortunately for him, Rodgers got hurt in his first game with New York and hasn't been the same since.

Douglas caught some bad breaks, and with some better luck he'd probably still be employed. But at the end of the day, he was never able to get the quarterback position right, and that's what ultimately cost him his job.

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Tyler Maher
TYLER MAHER

Tyler grew up in Massachusetts and is a huge Boston sports fan, especially the Red Sox. He went to Tufts University and played club baseball for the Jumbos. Since graduating, he has worked for MLB.com, The Game Day, FanDuel and Forbes. When he's not writing about baseball, he enjoys running, traveling, and playing fetch with his golden retriever.

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