Jets general manager Joe Douglas is, like head coach Robert Saleh, widely believed to be on the hot seat this season. Underscoring that reality is the fact that Douglas has just one year remaining on his contract, as Ian Rapoport of NFL.com reports.
Regardless of contractual situation, Douglas’ future with Gang Green would likely be dictated by the club’s performance this season. After all, New York is 27-56 during his time at the helm, and while some of that record can be chalked up to the expected growing pains of a rebuild and poor injury luck, GMs and head coaches generally do not survive too long without at least a playoff appearance.
Douglas signed a six-year deal with the Jets in June 2019, and since that time, he has certainly added plenty of talent to the roster. That includes a celebrated 2022 draft class that featured Sauce Gardner, Garrett Wilson, Jermaine Johnson, and Breece Hall, and the Saleh hire has paid major dividends on the defensive side of the ball: over the past two seasons, New York has finished in the top-four in total defense.
Still, the long-term success of a franchise will be driven largely by quarterback play, and that is where the Jets have failed. Douglas’ decision to use the No. 2 overall pick in the 2021 draft on Zach Wilson, despite Wilson’s unusual prospect profile, proved to be a disastrous decision that Douglas tried to correct by acquiring then-39-year-old Aaron Rodgers last year.
The fact that Rodgers suffered a season-ending ankle injury four snaps into the 2023 season, which thrust Wilson back into the starting lineup and torpedoed the fortunes of a seemingly playoff-worthy outfit, essentially gave Douglas and Saleh a reprieve. But owner Woody Johnson made it clear that, while he is not one to issue a “playoffs-or-bust” mandate, he is expecting a strong showing in the upcoming campaign.
“[Douglas and Saleh have] seen me about as mad as I could be with what was going on with the offense particularly,” Johnson said in February. “We’ve got all this talent and we’ve got to deploy talent properly. So I think they all got the message. This is it, this is the time to go. We’ve got to produce this year, we have to produce this year.”
If the Jets do not, in fact, produce, then Douglas and Saleh will likely be seeking new employment, with Douglas’ contract making it even easier for Johnson to make the call on his oft-scrutinized GM. For what it’s worth, Rapoport says that Douglas is comfortable with his lame-duck status, perhaps because he believes he is a healthy Rodgers season away from securing a new deal.