The Jets Are Circling the Drain Faster Than Ever, and Fire GM Joe Douglas

When this photo was taken, I was adamant in my belief that the Jets would come to regret trading for Aaron Rodgers:

First, because I thought the price they paid to get him was preposterously high, given they had all the leverage:

Then there was the obvious question of Rodgers' age. But then even more so there was my conviction that Rodgers wasn't going to set foot in New York and just decide he's happy just to be a good egg, mind his business, stay in his lane, do whatever is asked of him and hope to get his photo up on the wall where the Jets hang Employee of the Month Award winners. 

But even I, in my worst case scenario imagination, didn't see this coming. That just 12 starts into Rodgers' Jets career, that he'd be the only one in that picture to still have his job. But here we are:

That said, it's not like you can necessarily blame ownership for the decision. Douglas has been on the job for six years and the team hasn't exactly been trending in the right direction:

In fact, they're one loss away from their NINTH consecutive losing season. And I humbly suggest they'll lose one more game. 

What's wild about this is the timing. Why would a team swimming for the bottom of the league blowing bubbles behind them fire their GM in the middle of a season? Fire the head coach? They've checked that box. Make a switch at offensive coordinator? Done that. But since the roster has long since been established, the trading deadline is in their rearview, and the only possible changes would be along the fringes of the depth chart, why bother escorting Douglas out of the building now instead of replacing him at the end of the season?

There's only one logical explanation. Ownership needs a Fall Guy. And not in the handsome, devil-may-care, movie tough guy sense:

(That might be the most underappreciated TV theme in history, but I digress). They need a fall guy to take the heat for the Aaron Rodgers trade fiasco. And all the acquisitions they made on Rodgers' behalf. From the recently demoted Nathaniel Hackett to Allen Lazard to Davante Adams to a half dozen others. Which the entire organization seemed to be on board with, because it's what Rodgers wanted. And since the spring of 2023, anything he has said goes. Anything he wanted, the got. No questions asked. And since Woody Johnson can't fire his de facto GM, he fired the guy who's been GM in name only.

But in a much broader sense, this goes far beyond Douglas, Robert Saleh and even Rodgers. Those three merely adopted the Jets' dark. Woody Johnson was born to it. Molded by it. If his franchise ever saw the light, he'd find it blinding. He's the common thread that has existed throughout a near decade of losing seasons, with no end in sight. 

Let's not forget after all, what was going on before Douglas was hired. His predecessor Mike Maccagnan was allowed to draft Sam Darnold to be the Jets latest franchise quarterback. And that process turned into a goatfuck that can best be described as Jetsian:

[R]ight from the Draft when Maccagnan was calling all the team’s picks and then handing the phone to assistant coaches, scouts, the custodian – anybody but Adam Gase – to him getting fired around Mother’s Day and then Gase giving his insane press conference where he denied knowing about it … it’s more entertaining than that. This is a dysfunction personified. Bedlam, writ large. Pandemonium in football front office form. An ape enclosure at the zoo with poop being flung in every direction would do a better job of running a franchise than the actual people actually calling the shots in New York right now. It’s one of those situations where you realize the men who lost their jobs are the ones who got off easy. It’s one of those “the living envy the dead” scenarios.

And who was put in charge of the GM search? Adam Gase. He hired Douglas. Who two years later, fired Gase and hired Saleh. Then mortgaged the future to bring in Rodgers. Now Rodgers has seen to it that both are gone. And if he doesn't do the right thing and retire, he'll probably be allowed to pick the next GM and the next head coach. And the whole dysfunctional mess will perpetuate itself further. The Jets are like a royal house that keeps inbreeding and just gets more deformed and insane by the generation, like the Hapsburg Empire or King Charles. 

It couldn't happen to a better franchise. The Jets need to keep on Jetsing. Now and forever.