Douglas Dishonors Super Bowl III Anniversary With Low-Bar Goals For 2022 Jets

Tyler Greenawalt

To my fellow Jets fans: Happy January 12, the 53rd anniversary of the Jets’ only NFL Championship, where Joe Namath stunned the Colts in Super Bowl III to deliver on the iconic quarterback’s guarantee. Unfortunately, Jets Nation hasn’t experienced much joy since, with the last decade or so particularly malodorous.

So it pained me to listen to Jets General Manager Joe Douglas’ exit press conference on Monday, where, after a dreadful 4-13 campaign, he once again laid out a lame vision for the near future, the same low bar I’ve been hearing every year.

When asked directly by The Athletic’s Connor Hughes whether his team should be competing for the playoffs in 2022, Douglas did not exactly channel Namath in his response. Forget any guarantee--Douglas said, “We go into every game expecting to win. The goal is to be playing very meaningful games as the season progresses next year.”

What are we doing here? Douglas, who received a six-year contract when he took over from predecessor Mike Maccagnan in in June 2019, is heading into his third offseason in charge of turning over what admittedly was a trash roster. That’s a lifetime in NFL terms. Douglas demeaned fans looking for “instant gratification,” but teams go from last to first all the time—this season’s riser from the ashes was the Bengals. Bill Parcells took over a similarly putrid situation from Rich Kotite in 1997 and had the Jets in the AFC Championship Game in Year 2. Is it that much for fans to ask for the team to at least demand of themselves a playoff mandate for next season, with anything less deemed an abject failure?  

Where once the Jets GM job was one to be avoided for any capable NFL personnel executive, that is no longer the case. The organization is heading into this offseason with a stockpile of draft picks, including two in the top ten and four in the top 38, ample salary cap space (estimated by overthecap.com at around $50 million but could easily go higher with deserved cuts and contract restructurings), and a quarterback (Zach Wilson) on a rookie contract.

Douglas gets a good chunk of credit for turning that part around through his savvy trades and cap management. He brought in a head coach in Robert Saleh who seemingly has the respect of his players (and definitely the beat reporters), But now comes the hard part—putting together a roster which can win. And by win, I’m not talking about some mediocre 8-9 season, but one that competes at the league’s highest levels. A playoff team.

Douglas at least acknowledged he needs to do a better job in that player acquisition area than he has. His first draft class in 2020 hasn’t been a complete washout thanks to fifth round cornerback Bryce Hall and the potential for first-round left tackle Mekhi Becton to figure out how to stay on the field, but there were too many wasted picks. As much promise as the 2021 class showed, it will eventually be defined by how No. 2 overall pick Wilson turns out, and the first-year results were concerning. Free agency, never a solution for rebuilding teams, hasn’t been any kinder to Douglas, with more salary cap space allocated to the season-ending injured reserve list than to the field.

It hasn’t seemed to matter who has been in charge of football over the last ten years because Jets fans are well aware that the franchise’s dysfunction reeks from the top, where Woody Johnson resumed overseer responsibilities from younger brother Christopher following his return from his stint as Ambassador to the United Kingdom prior to this season. Ownership’s first move of the offseason was to announce that ticket prices would rise 3% for next season. Way to read the room, Woody.

In many fans’ eyes, money is all that the franchise cares about. I won’t tar Douglas with that label just yet, but we’ll see how aggressive he’ll be in looking outside the organization for talent upgrades in addition to rewarding the few holdover free agents who have bought into the program with extensions. ( Offseason Berrios Negotiations Will Prove Telling About Jets So-Called Culture Change (substack.com) )

The bottom line is that many fans think that the Jets only seem to be serious about the bottom line of their profit/loss statement, not their place in the standings. The sense is that they believe they can satisfy their fan base by always underpromising so they can never underdeliver. Keep the standards low and you can never disappoint.

Never mind that 53 years is a long time to go without witnessing the ultimate glory. With Douglas putting it out there that greatness isn’t the measure of success, I’m confident in betting that the 2022 Jets again won’t achieve it. No, I guarantee it.