I'm in the middle. There's no doubt going 6-27 over the last two years is bad and his first draft class doesn't look promising outside of Hall. But, the 2021 class showed a lot more in year 1 and the the offense has a system which worked when the OC went to the booth. And he's been excellent at getting value back in trades. If the team shows little to no progress in 2022, he deserves to be put on notice if not outright fired. I gave Maccagnan the benefit of the doubt for three years, so I'm trying to be consistent here. I know Douglas arrived in 2019, but that was after the draft, so I won't pin that offseason on him.
Mac didn't deserve the benefit of the doubt or three years. He wasn't nearly as qualified as JD, nor did he do anything nearly as well as JD has. JD deserves more time and more trust. Wanting him put on notice or fired is absurd and totally unreasonable imo. I don't think any GM in the NFL could have done much better the last two seasons than 6-27, especially with the first of those two years being when Gase was HC. Totally unrealistic and unreasonable expectations!
I agree - last two years JD was heavy into the rebuild. Last year rookie QB, rookie HC and DC/OC. This coming year though we need to see some results. He made some good moves in free agency. But he also once again failed to address WR. I am not blaming him for missing out on Hill, but there was quite a bit of movement, and he could have gotten someone. Definitely Amari Cooper for the 5th rounder was the one I pointed out from the beginning. You said he sucks, but later reports came out he indeed wanted him, but wanted to redo the deal first, while Browns took as is and later redid the deal to save 15 mil. That was a costly mistake. With all that said, the offseason is not over. I hope JD will get some more good players, but I doubt there will be a star WR on the roster. Which means he needs to hit on the major part of the off-season - the draft. He did it last year. Now, to me this is a gamble. Our highest prized possession is Zach, and a guy like Cooper would REALLY help him. Yet he was outbid by a mid 5th round pick. If JD takes two WRs, and one becomes a star, then no argument there, but he now really has to hit on the draft, particularly WR spot. I have hope he will get it done. If he does get it done, results will show. Either way I think we will find a lot more about JD this upcoming season, and unlike the last two years when he deservingly was given a pass, results will need to matter this time around.
I disagree that it was a mistake. As the Hill trade showed, if JD had thought Cooper was worth it, he would have gone all in. Obviously, he didn't think that Cooper was worth the risk, and I don't blame him. I don't think he's worth anywhere near $20 million a year and I wouldn't have take the risk either. Even though Cooper re-did his deal in Cleveland, it doesn't mean that he would have agreed to here. Cleveland had no leverage at that point and had to pretty much give Cooper what he wanted. JD doesn't operate that way, nor should he, and I'm glad he didn't. Someone pointed out either here or on Twitter that very few of the "star" WRs ever make it to the SB. That is very telling. Teams don't need a "star" WR to get to or win a SB. I don't think Zach needs a "star" WR to develop or fulfill his potential, although Moore could develop into a star if he can stay healthy. I also don't think we need Cooper's or Hill's hugh contract eating up tons of cap space for the foreseeable future. We have more flexibility now.
While agree with your post, for the most part, I have to point out that: -both SB teams this past year had “star receivers” possibly 2 each depending how you feel about Higgins -both of the year before SB teams has star WRs -The SB before that, the winning team had a star WR
TE is more important to a young QB and to this offense than WR and we now have two solid options TE. We still need solid receivers and a proven vet would have been nice, but taking a young WR is not so bad if Davis and Moore can step up and stay healthy.
The thing is - we all said the bold before last season. We've just shifted the goalposts now because last season didn't go as most of us expected. The average win prediction among people here was 7 wins because we figured surely Saleh was at least an upgrade over Gase and surely Wilson would be an upgrade over Darnold. We also had young guys with another year of experience under their belt relative to the year before. We expected Mims to improve. We expected Becton to improve. We got Mosley back after not having him the entire year before. We expected Quinnen to improve - he had less sacks in more games. We added some DL help and improved our WR and CB units hugely (though they're still not great). Those were all valid reasons we expected to see some results last season, we're just acting like they weren't now because it didn't work out. The way last season went is a knock on Douglas, he shouldn't get a pass for it. He hired Saleh and given the clear roster improvements it appears it was a questionable hire.
Actually, IIRC, most people here were predicting between 4-6 wins, and hoping that we'd see some progress from all the new additions, and especially from Zach. We had a harder schedule than the year before which factored into the W/L expectation. Then shit happened: The OL didn't jell as quickly as hoped. Their new pass rusher got hurt and lost before even playing a down in the R.S. Becton got hurt - and ultimately out for the season. Saleh and LaFleur showed that they were rookies learning on the job. Zach struggled early with learning the system, the speed of the NFL, and LaFleur's playcalling, then he got hurt (which turned out to be a blessing in disguise) Injuries piled up on both sides of the ball, leaving Zach at one point with guys who were signed off the street as his starters. Of the above, you really can't fault Douglas unless Saleh doesn't pan out which the jury is out on. You can't judge him off of one year, especially in light of the other things that happened. But let's play your game: Douglas sucks and should be fired before the draft so he doesn't fuck up thing even more. What's your solution?
Yes, I also had those expectations. But I believe in 2021 we saw first year learning difficulties affect almost everyone, as well as a rash of injuries and players just not living up to expectations. Again, my reset for JD began in 2021 (he hired and drafted a new regime), so for me his (and Saleh) base is 4 wins. I really do expect his 2022 draft (or even some kind of big trade), coupled with the off season acquisitions, to markedly make the team better. How many wins better...?
There wasn't much of a risk. The guy gets 1000+ yards almost every year, and even last year where he only got 865, he doubled up on the top WR the Jets. And if he doesn't work out we dump him next year. Of course he didn't go all in - Cooper is not Hill, but he wanted him still, and failed to get him, because Dallas didn't want to be bothered over a restructure when only 5th round pick is in play, and they already had it from Browns. Who by the way had no problem reducing to 5 mil. Here we are now with worse WR room than last year, and last year it was horrendous. All teams that went to SB had great WRs. Last two years it's Chase, Kupp, Hill himself, Evans, OBJ, Godwin, etc.. JD had better hit WR in the draft, that's all I am going to say, because there were good options in FA/trade market, where he could have done something, and he came up emptyhanded. I am not buying the narrative that we are OK with two TEs. That was good, but we MUST upgrade WR room too.
Well, you know drafting is probably the most important part off the GM's job. I am defending JD based on his 2020 draft( I do not see it as poorly as everyone else cause i think Becton will turn out exceptional), 2021 draft and 2021/22 off season, as well as his trades. But if the 2022 draft fails (injuries are the exception) than I was wrong in my opinions. He will live or die on ZW and this draft.
Even with the injuries the following units were as good or better on paper than the year before: DL (returned same guys, added Rankins) CB (Hall improved, added Echols and Carter) LB (Got Mosley back) WR (Brought back Crowder and replaced Perriman and Hogan with Davis, Moore and Berrios) RB (Replaced Gore with Carter and Tevin Coleman) OL was probably a wash because although Becton missed the entire year, Fant played very well and Moses was fine. AVT was also an upgrade from Lewis. Our line overall graded out higher last year than the year before. QB was also a wash because Wilson was about on par with Darnold. So, counting injuries, our safeties were worse this year but most other units were better. I think we're forgetting just how bad our roster was the year before last, look at this: https://www.northjersey.com/story/s...on-position-breakdown-2020-roster/5755882002/ There are literally 14 starters on that list who basically didn't play meaningful minutes for anyone the year after. 14! That's more than half the total starters. We were absolutely a better roster than that last year even with the injuries.
It was 7, I checked the thread about it. See above post regarding the roster even counting the injuries. We had a HORRENDOUS roster in 2020. 14 of the starters on our 2020 team didn't play at all or meaningful minutes for anyone in 2021.
If only you played games on paper. So this is all about the Saleh hire? I'm still in evaluation mode. I can tell you I liked the hire at the time. No way I wanted McCarthy.
Good TEs are hard to find. A stud running back is something we can essily get in round two. Not ideal but a much cheaper safety blanket.
Douglas, unfortunately for him, followed Mike MacCagnan. Mike MacCagnan was the jets worst GM ever. Period...end of story. You mention the OL that Douglas inherited from MacMoron. That was because MacCagnan completely ignored OL on draft day. In his five years with the jets, he drafted a TOTAL of 3 offensive lineman...two in round FIVE and one in late round THREE. And he is so damn stupid he even told everybody at his initial press conference with the jets that he would not be drafting offensive lineman in rounds 1 or 2. Good back and watch it. Why would any new (or old) GM ever educate the rest of the league that your team will not be drafting a certain position (in this case offensive line) in certain rounds????? Unless he wants the other teams to plan accordingly? I really can't believe the Johnsons kept MacCagnan for five drafts, and then fired him shortly after his fifth and final draft.
No one is saying that we don't need to upgrade the WR room, least of all me, but imo your "the sky is falling" panic is over the top. I trust JD and am not worried about the WR position.
