New York axes GM after dumping Robert Saleh

On By Littum

game

Creeping changes give way to sweeping changes for the wreckage that is New York Jets.

Six weeks after firing former head coach Robert Saleh following a 2-3 start to a season fueled by massive expectations, the NYJ on Tuesday fired general manager Joe Douglas, signaling a complete overhaul of an organization expected to – at a minimum – end its league-long 14-year playoff drought in 2024. Douglas’ contract was set to expire in 2025, but the Jets are making a clean break anyway.

Former Cleveland Browns GM Phil Savage will replace Douglas in an interim capacity for the remainder of this season.

“Today I informed Joe Douglas that he will no longer serve as General Manager of the New York Jets,” owner Woody Johnson said in a statement. “I would like to thank Joe for his commitment to the Jets over the past six years and wish him and his family the best going forward.

“We will begin the process of identifying a new General Manager immediately.”

Hired to replace Mike Maccagnan after the 2019 NFL draft, Douglas ends his run with a 30-64 record and nearly a winning season. He previously worked in the front offices of the Baltimore Ravens, Chicago Bears and Philadelphia Eagles.

His tenure was certainly not a complete failure. The peak apparently occurred two years ago, when Douglas landed cornerback Sauce Gardner, wideout Garrett Wilson, linebacker Jermaine Johnson II and running back Breece Hall in a widely touted 2022 draft. All have generally been solid with elite players, though Johnson tore his Achilles in September following a Pro Bowl campaign in 2023. A challenge for the team’s next GM will be figuring out how and if to keep these players, all of whom are eligible for contract extensions after this season.

Douglas also hit on players like nickelback Michael Carter II and pass rushers Will McDonald IV and Bryce Huff, who went undrafted but signed a huge free agent deal with the Philadelphia Eagles earlier this year.

But like so many failed front office managers, Douglas’ inability to solve the quarterback position ultimately undermined him. He chose to move on from Sam Darnold’s estimated potential rather than build the roster around it — All-Pro-caliber players like OT Penei Sewell, wideout Ja’Marr Chase or linebacker Micah Parsons were all options — and instead reset with BYU’s Zach Wilson using the No. 2 in the 2021 draft. But Wilson was so bad in his first two seasons that the team traded for four-time league MVP Aaron Rodgers in 2023.

Of course, that opened up a whole new can of worms — from the Achilles injury that cut Rodgers four snaps in his team debut last year, to the continued inability to adequately protect him, to the perception that he has too much influence on team operations . , to the offensive failures stemming from the hiring of his good friend Nathaniel Hackett, who is now only the offensive coordinator in name amid the unit’s ongoing efficiency issues, to Rodgers’ own diminished abilities given his age and mounting injuries. In addition to Hackett, Douglas brought in several of Rodgers’ former Green Bay Packers teammates, but the Jets haven’t enjoyed many notable contributions from them.

Matters weren’t helped when the team opted to let Huff — among the game’s leading situational pass rushers, if not an all-defeating player — go in a trade for Eagles linebacker Haason Reddick, who ultimately sat out the first half of the season when he and the Jets failed to reach a long-term contractual agreement. The Jets were widely toasted for the standoff with Reddick given some kind of agreement could have been cemented as part of the terms that cost Douglas a conditional third-round pick.

Still, the Jets won two of their first three games — even as it became clear the offense was limited and Rodgers hadn’t regained his MVP form — before falling apart. Two subsequent losses cost Saleh his job, and the club has since gone 1-5 under interim coach Jeff Ulbrich.

Johnson will now be looking for a new GM/coach combination and perhaps another quarterback as well, although Rodgers — who turns 41 next month — recently expressed his intent to play in 2025, which is currently the final year of his contract.

Aside from a mandate to win the team’s first Super Bowl since its famous 1968 season, the Jets’ next decision-makers will also have to decide what to do with newly acquired wideout Davante Adams and will likely be faced with additional changes to the offensive line and the once-formidable defense is set to dump several players in free agency next year, including Reddick.

Losers of seven of their last eight, including a crushing loss to the Indianapolis Colts at home on Sunday, the Jets have just entered their bye week. You never know what else will change on the other side of it.

This story has been updated with new information.

***

Follow USA TODAY Sports’ Nate Davis on X, formerly Twitter, @ByNateDavis.