Joe Douglas may be in his final weeks as the Jets general manager.
Douglas does not have a contract for 2025.
The team is 30-62 in his six seasons on the job, including 3-6 this year.
The coach he hired in 2021, Robert Saleh, was fired after five games this season.
All of it adds up to it not looking good for Douglas’ job security.
Douglas spoke to the media Wednesday for the first time since the season began.
He was asked if he is concerned about his future.
“I come in here every day, I just want to do whatever I can to help this team reach its goals and get to its destination, and whatever happens, happens,” Douglas said.
The Jets have not won more than seven games in a season since Douglas took the job in 2019.
He has had some good moments — the 2022 draft and some free-agent signings — and some terrible moments — drafting Zach Wilson No. 2 overall, his 2020 and 2021 drafts, and some free-agent busts.
“We haven’t had a winning season,” Douglas said. “We’re sitting here at 3-6. There’s a lot of frustration. Obviously, it starts with me. I can look back and there’s quite a few things I could have done better. When a situation happens like happened four weeks ago, you have a lot of self-reflective moments on the things that you could have done better to keep that from happening. We have an opportunity with these last stretch of games to change that narrative.”
It feels like owner Woody Johnson has taken control of the team from Douglas over the past month.
There have been several big moves that have Johnson’s fingerprints on them.
The first was the decision to fire Saleh, which Johnson said was his alone.
Douglas and Saleh were very close, and it is unlikely that Douglas would have recommended firing the coach after five games.
Douglas on Wednesday avoided giving his opinion on Saleh’s firing.
“I’m not going to get into any of the details of any of the conversations that happened before or after that,” Douglas said. “Again, Woody and I talk every day. At the end of the day, I think Colin Powell said it in a different arena: I serve at the pleasure of the owner. My single goal is to help this team get to the goal of a championship.”
The Jets don’t feel close to a championship after the way they have started the season.
They snapped a five-game losing skid last week with a 21-13 win over the Texans.
They now travel to face Arizona on Sunday, hoping to mount an unlikely playoff push.
“Obviously, not where anybody envisioned us being right now at 3-6 coming out of training camp,” Douglas said. “But I do think after Thursday night’s game, the way we finished that game, the way we came out in the second half, I think [interim coach Jeff Ulbrich] had a great message to the team on Monday just saying, ‘Look guys, none of this started the way we wanted to start it, but we still have everything in front of us. Every goal we want to accomplish is still out in front of us.’”
Douglas made a big trade last month when he acquired wide receiver Davante Adams.
He made one more move before Tuesday’s trade deadline, shipping Mike Williams to the Steelers.
Douglas signed Williams to a one-year, $10 million deal this offseason. Douglas said Williams missing the spring and training camp as he returned from ACL surgery hurt him.
“Not being part being of OTAs, not being able to be part of a majority of training camp, just could never really get that synched up,” Douglas said. “This is a great opportunity for him to have a fresh start. It’s a move that we wouldn’t have made had we not felt good about the guys we have in the room. Us acquiring a player like Davante gives us the flexibility if a team wants to be aggressive to acquire a player like Mike, we can do that. We feel good about having two elite receives. Allen should come back 100 percent soon. A great opportunity for guys like [Xavier Gipson] and [Malachi] Corley. I think we’re really happy with the depth we have in the room.”
