Joe Douglas - Pro Football Rumors

Latest On Jets’ Decision At No. 4 Overall

April 19th, 2022 at 5:17pm CST by Sam Robinson

Possessing an opportunity to nab two instant starters in this draft, the Jets might not be in lockstep with their two top-10 picks. While the team’s wide receiver pursuit continues to be connected to the No. 10 choice, its No. 4 pick supplies more intrigue.

GM Joe Douglas “loves” North Carolina State tackle Ikem Ekwonu, according to SNY’s Ralph Vacchiano. Although Douglas could supersede any other staffer’s preference, Vacchiano’s mock draft features Robert Saleh winning a power struggle that concludes with defensive end Kayvon Thibodeaux on his way to the Big Apple.

The Jets’ Thibodeaux visit last week involved a grilling on the motivation and personality issues that have affected the Oregon product’s draft stock, Vacchiano adds, noting that the Jets were impressed with the polarizing pass rusher. The Lions have also been connected to Thibodeaux, but the issues that have dinged his stock may be too much for Dan Campbell. The second-year Lions coach is not believed to be high on Thibodeaux, Albert Breer of SI.com notes. Gang Green would then be in position, should the Texans pass at No. 3, to stop a potential Thibodeaux freefall.

George Fant‘s emergence lessens the Jets’ O-line need, but Mekhi Becton‘s reliability nosedive has the 2020 first-round pick on unstable ground. The Jets are prepared to try Becton on the right side, and Vacchiano adds Ekwonu may not be a Day 1 starter if selected by the Jets. That would be unusual for a top-five pick and would depend on Becton’s readiness, but this overlap — despite the Jets’ interest in adding an impact tackle — could push the team to spend its top pick on another position.

This could certainly go the other way as well, which would have the Jets using three first-round picks on O-linemen in three years. Hearing Ekwonu connected to the Jets more than anyone else, Breer mocks the tackle to New York. Ekwonu played both tackle and guard with the Wolfpack; this could solve the positional overlap with Becton. Some teams view guard as Ekwonu’s best position, Breer adds.

Carl Lawson‘s ACL tear wounded the Jets’ pass rush before last season started, and Saleh’s first Jets defense ranked last. Although Lawson is set to return, the Jets still have a need on the edge. The team has famously struggled to address its edge position since 2006’s John Abraham trade. No Jet edge defender registered more than two sacks last season.

AFC East Rumors: Bills, Jets, Douglas, Jackson

March 6th, 2022 at 5:33pm CST by Ely Allen

On Friday, New York Governor Kathy Hochul made comments that all but guaranteed that an agreement for a new stadium for the Bills will be made soon, according to Mike Florio of NBC Sports.

Highmark Stadium (previously Rich Stadium, Ralph Wilson Stadium, and New Era Field) has been the home of the Bills since 1973. The Bills’ current lease on Highmark expires in 2023 and the franchise has been pushing with many government entities to build them a shiny, new stadium. The team has used the very real looming threat that there are plenty of other markets in the country that can support an NFL franchise.

Hochul commented on that threat saying, “That’s why we’re negotiating very intently, to make sure we have the right outcome for this community.” The new stadium will partially be funded by the public to the tune of about $850MM. The Governor claims that a deal will be done by April 1, in time for the annual budget.

Here are a few other rumors from around the AFC East, starting with a couple of notes that keep us in the Empire State:

The Jets are planning to use this offseason to add some weapons to the roster for quarterback Zach Wilson. They currently have Corey Davis and Elijah Moore sitting atop the depth chart. They would love to bring back Braxton Berrios as a fourth-receiver/gadget player and they haven’t yet given up on Denzel Mims. Still, New York will have ample opportunity to add a potential No. 1 receiver to the roster, according to SNY’s Ralph Vacchiano. The free agent market is home to many household names like Chris Godwin, Allen Robinson, Mike Williams, and, potentially, Amari Cooper. Players like Calvin Ridley and Cole Beasley have been rumored to be available via trade. The 2022 NFL Draft is also so rich in talented receivers that many believe some first round talent could fall to the second round where the Jets have two high picks, if they don’t choose to take a top prospect like Garrett Wilson or Drake London with the 10th overall pick.
That being said, Vacchiano also reports that, despite their vast spending ability, general manager Joe Douglas has been preaching the maintenance of financial flexibility. Though the Jets rank in the Top 5 in the NFL in salary cap space, Douglas rejected the notion that their $50-60MM in cap space will be dedicated to big spending in free agency. Douglas acknowledged free agency as just one of “a lot of different tools to improve your roster” and pointed to the Bengals as an example of responsible free agent spending. “I think Cincy did great in free agency last year,” he said. “They didn’t blow the doors off in terms of signing super high-priced guys. They brought in guys who fit exactly what they wanted to do.”
According to Mike Giardi of NFL Network, Patriots’ cornerback JC Jackson is likely headed for free agency with some lofty expectations. While Jackson still likes the Patriots, money is a big factor for the 26-year-old. Giardi claims that Jackson is strictly seeking compensation similar to Jalen Ramsey. New England won’t bring that money to the table and it sounds like they won’t be utilizing their franchise tag on Jackson, either. That information could lead to a tag and trade situation if other teams aren’t willing to shell out for Jackson in free agency.

Jets Will Pick Up Quinnen Williams’ Fifth Year Option

March 3rd, 2022 at 10:52am CST by Adam La Rose

When speaking to the media at the NFL Combine, Jets general manager Joe Douglas confirmed a decision many felt was inevitable. The team will pick up the fifth year option on Quinnen Williams‘ contract (video link).

“We are going to pick up pick up Quinnen’s option”, Douglas said. “We had that conversation. I don’t think that’s really huge news… We’re excited to have Quinnen. This is going to be year two in a defense that we feel really accentuates his strengths… We’re looking forward for him to come back and dominate this offseason”.

It was reported late in the 2021 regular season that the Jets weren’t in a hurry to give the 24-year-old an extension when he first became eligible. That left the door open to the team letting him play out the last two years of his rookie deal, which would keep him in New York through at least the 2023 campaign. Franchise tags could extend that by two more years, of course, though a new deal would presumably be in place by then.

The third overall pick in 2019, Williams’ production this past year was closer to his second, most effective one than his rookie campaign. In 15 games, he compiled 53 tackles, including seven for a loss, along with six sacks and three pass deflections. Over the past two seasons, his 13 total sacks rank second in the league amongst interior linemen, demonstrating the disruptive presence he was touted to be coming out of college.

With Williams in place for at least another two years, the Jets can move forward this offseason looking to build around him in an attempt to upgrade the league’s worst statistical defense from last season.

AFC East Rumors: Jets, Cunningham, McCourty, Dolphins

January 16th, 2022 at 9:25pm CST by Ely Allen

The Jets wasted no time in 2019 when wide receiver Braxton Berrios was waived by the Patriots just prior to the 2019 NFL season. The fourth-year player from the University of Miami was tabbed early in his Jets’ tenure as Jamison Crowder‘s back up in the slot, but Rich Cimini, of ESPN, details how Berrios’s effectiveness running and returning the ball could net him a bigger contract than his fellow slot receivers.

The first-team All Pro return man hits free agency this offseason and it’ll be interesting to see how those talks play out.

Here are a few more notes on the AFC East, starting with another item out of the Tri-State area:

Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer has recognized the Eagles’ director of player personnel, Ian Cunningham, as a potential future general manager. The Jets, specifically, have tried twice to bring him on, as he and Jets’ general manager Joe Douglas are both products of the Ozzie Newsome tree from their time with the Ravens.
As the Patriots’ season came to an end with last night’s blow out loss to the Bills, ESPN’s Mike Reiss brings forth the question of Devin McCourty‘s future. The New England mainstay has been a lynchpin of the Patriots’ defense for 12 years. But, at age 34 with an expiring contract, what does the future hold for the Boston-based twin.
Cornerback Xavien Howard put enough pressure on the Dolphins in August that they restructured his contract with a few rewarding incentives. Howard made sure to cash out. Howard added to his salary $1MM for making the Pro Bowl and another $1MM for playing at least 90% of Miami’s defensive snaps. Barry Jackson, of the Miami Herald, details the situation in his Sports Buzz column.

HC Robert Saleh: Jets Aren’t Planning “Fire Sale”

October 27th, 2021 at 10:26pm CST by Ben Levine

When the Jets were struggling last year, general manager Joe Douglas was quick to sell off veterans for future picks. While the 2021 version of the team sits at only 1-5, it doesn’t sound like the Jets are planning on selling again this year. While head coach Robert Saleh wasn’t around last season, he told reporters today that he isn’t anticipating a fire sale, per Connor Hughes of The Athletic (via Twitter).

“If it’s something that will help us, great,” Saleh said (via Al Iannazzone of Newsday.com). “If it’s not, great. We’ll stay pat. Forcing things is not Joe’s forte. He’s very deliberate. He communicates with us all the time. I love the way he goes about his business. I love his process. I’m with Joe.”

The Jets have the youngest roster in the NFL, so it’s not like the team has a surplus of veterans that they could sell off for future pieces. Last year, the team traded the likes of Steve McLendon, Avery Williamson, and Jordan Willis, but we’re unlikely to see a repeat in 2021.

“If it’s something that’s going to help us awesome,” Saleh said. “But I also know we’re not looking for a fire sale either.”

While Marcus Maye previously made sense as a trade candidate (considering the contentious negotiations this summer), the safety said that he hasn’t requested a trade out of New York. Following Zach Wilson‘s injury, the Jets actually made a move to add to their roster earlier this week when they acquired Joe Flacco from the Eagles.

Jets Owner Endorses GM Joe Douglas, HC Robert Saleh

October 26th, 2021 at 6:48pm CST by Ben Levine

The Jets hit another low this past Sunday. Not only did they get blown out by their divisional rival, but they also lost rookie quarterback Zach Wilson for the next few weeks. While no one in New York is happy with the team’s 1-5 record, owner Woody Johnson told reporters that he continues to have faith in general manager Joe Douglas and coach Robert Saleh.

“I’ve been around for, this is going on 22 years, with my little absence that I had recently, and this is a good group,” Johnson said (via ESPN’s Rich Cimini). “We will get it right. Last week, you know, [was] frustrating, but now we turn the page and we’re off to the Bengals.”

The Jets have struggled during Douglas’s two-plus seasons in New York, but he’s also put together the league’s youngest roster and has a clear vision for the future. This is Saleh’s first season at the helm, and even if the Jets finish with one of the worst records in the league, there’s practically no chance the team moves on from their head coach.

“Just talking to the leadership — Joe, Robert, and seeing how their plans are put together,” Johnson said. “How they’re deep thinkers, they want to do things like establish a culture and they’re getting the right players in the right positions.

“It’s just a very young team with a young quarterback. He’s 22 years old, he just turned 22. So he’s seeing things for the first time like a lot of the quarterbacks now, a lot of the young quarterbacks. It’s going to take him a little bit of time, but I have a lot of confidence in Zach, too.”

Jets Likely To Roll Over Most Of Their Cap Space?

May 30th, 2021 at 4:33pm CST by Rory Parks

As Rich Cimini of ESPN.com observes, the Jets are second in the league with roughly $25MM of cap space, and they will still be in good shape after signing their top four draft picks (which will result in a $9.1MM cap charge). That $25MM figure does not include the cap savings the team will realize from guard Alex Lewis‘ recent paycut, and New York could create still more room if it’s able to hammer out an extension with franchise-tagged safety Marcus Maye. Even if that doesn’t happen, GM Joe Douglas will have a ton of flexibility.

However, Cimini gets the sense that while Douglas may acquire a veteran or two to fill a specific need, he will not make any major moves. Instead, Douglas will be perfectly content to roll the bulk of his unused dollars into 2022. And if the cap takes the massive spike that was recently reported, the Jets could be armed with around $80MM to attack the first wave of free agency next year. Douglas would obviously love to see his club take a step forward in its rebuild in 2021, which might allow him to be more aggressive next offseason than he has been to date.

Cimini’s report is not terribly surprising, as there just aren’t many big-money additions to be made at this point in the league year. The Jets are not in the mix for the top two trade candidates at the moment, Aaron Rodgers and Julio Jones, and while another edge rusher like Everson Griffen might make sense, such a transaction won’t have a major impact on the team’s cap.

Cimini does believe the club must add a cornerback. New head coach Robert Saleh might be interested in reuniting with Richard Sherman, though Cimini believes that is highly unlikely to happen, which leaves Steven Nelson as the best FA option at the moment. Of course, a player could always become available via cut or trade.

A veteran QB is also a must-add, in Cimini’s estimation. The Jets did make a run at Brian Hoyer before he elected to rejoin the Patriots, and like several of his fellow Jets beat writers, Cimini thinks a post-June 1 trade for Bears QB Nick Foles makes plenty of sense.

Jets Notes: Douglas, Darnold, Wilson

April 8th, 2021 at 9:43pm CST by Ben Levine

Joe Douglas didn’t take the Sam Darnold trade lightly, and the Jets GM acknowledged how difficult it was telling the quarterback that he had been traded to the Panthers.

“[T]he swallow-hard moment for me was just making that call to Sam,” Douglas told SI’s Albert Breer. “You know how much work and dedication he’s put in the last three years here, how many rough situations he’s been through, and never wavered with his confidence. Still, when we had the call, I know in his heart of hearts that he feels he was the right guy to turn this franchise around. I just have so much admiration for how he carries himself.”

During the interview with Breer, Douglas revealed that the front office took their time determining how to proceed at quarterback. While the team would have normally completed their scouting much earlier in the offseason, they didn’t get a chance to see the top quarterback prospects in person until late March. Eventually, the organization decided that they’d feel comfortable taking a signal-caller with the No. 2 pick.

“I don’t know how every team approaches a quarterback [evaluation], but I’ve always thought it was a golden rule—you don’t ever take a quarterback until you stand near or next to a guy and watch him throw the football,” Douglas said. “None of the top brass were able to get out to a BYU game this year. There were no all-star games, no combine. You could see Mac Jones at the Senior Bowl. But other than that, your only opportunity to stand there and watch them throw was at a pro day.”

We explored some of the GM’s other soundbites earlier tonight, including the fact that the Jets had a competitive offer for Darnold earlier in the offseason.

Some more notes out of New York:

Joseph Person and Connor Hughes of The Athletic provided a detailed timeline of the Darnold trade, dating back to Jets season-ending loss to the Patriots in early January. Among the notable revelations from the article was the fact that the Panthers starting offer for the quarterback was a fourth-round pick, while the Jets were initially requesting a first-rounder (even if it was conditional). Douglas considered holding out until after the draft in pursuit of that first, but he ultimately decided to avoid the risk of the Panthers pivoting to a rookie or another veteran quarterback.
BYU quarterback Zach Wilson is the favorite to be selected second overall by the Jets. Wilson underwent shoulder surgery back in 2019, but NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport tweets that the team continues to have no concern about the shoulder, especially after they got positive news from a recent physical. Based on advice from “trusted medical sources,” the organization has “zero issues about Wilson’s shoulder,” per RapSheet.
The 2020 sixth-round pick that the Panthers sent to the Jets in the Darnold trade is a compensatory selection, according to ESPN’s Rich Cimini (on Twitter). That pick comes in at No. 226 overall.
We learned earlier tonight that the Jets re-signed cornerback Bennett Jackson. The 2014 sixth-rounder didn’t appear in a regular season game until the 2019 season, when he appeared in six games with the Jets and Ravens. He appeared in four games this past season for New York, collecting a single tackle.

Jets GM Joe Douglas On Draft, QBs, Darnold

April 6th, 2021 at 1:45pm CST by Andrew Ortenberg

The Jets made one of the biggest moves of the offseason on Monday, trading Sam Darnold to the Panthers. Rather than shying away from the splashy deal, New York GM Joe Douglas gave a press conference on Tuesday to update the media. At that press conference, he made several interesting revelations. You can read most of those revelations in full courtesy of this Twitter thread from Ralph Vacchiano of SNY.

Perhaps most interestingly, Douglas said that the Jets weren’t looking to move on from Darnold at all costs. In fact, he said if they didn’t have the second overall pick, Darnold would’ve been returning for a fourth year in New York. “Having the No. 2 pick, I think it’s safe to say if our pick was a little bit later we wouldn’t be having this discussion right now. We’d be comfortable moving ahead with Sam,” he explained.

When asked if the team was locked in on taking a quarterback at number two, he didn’t try to obfuscate too much. “I think that’s a fair assessment to say,” he replied. Douglas said the team did consider keeping both Darnold and a rookie on the roster, like Josh McCown and others floated recently, but ultimately decided it wouldn’t have been good for the locker room.

Douglas declined to name a specific quarterback the team is after, although they’re now widely expected to take BYU’s Zach Wilson. He also seemed to indicate that Darnold’s impending price tag (the Panthers will pay him $18.9MM in 2022 by picking up his fifth-year option) was a factor.

“We felt ultimately at the end of the day this was an opportunity to hit the reset button financially, so to speak,” Douglas said. Wilson will be pretty cheap for a handful of years on a rookie deal. While he didn’t explicitly confirm that’s where the team is looking, he may as well have. He was asked about Steve Young recently saying the team was committed to taking Wilson. To that, Douglas replied “Steve’s plugged in to BYU pretty well.”

He also said the team is “very excited” about 2020 fourth-round pick James Morgan, who could potentially backup Wilson. It sounds like the Jets could forego a veteran backup and roll with a very young quarterback room in 2021.

Jets To Make ‘Waves’ In Free Agency?

March 14th, 2021 at 9:45pm CST by Andrew Ortenberg

Free agency is right around the corner, and tonight is like Christmas Eve for NFL fans. The real action will start in the morning, but we’re already starting to get reports about what’s to come. The more we hear, the more it sounds like the Jets are going to be big players in what will be a very interesting market due to the lowering of the salary cap.

We already heard the Jets will pursue Patriots guard Joe Thuney, and that apparently isn’t the only big target they’re interested in. The expectation from sources around the league is that the Jets will “make waves” in free agency, Connor Hughes of The Athletic tweets. GM Joe Douglas is apparently ready to be a big spender, and “there is absolutely no financial restriction on Douglas this offseason,” Hughes writes.

Hughes goes on to say Douglas “has means & green light to build team however he wants. That means pursuing top-tier FAs and giving them top-tier $, if he wants.” In a separate tweet, Hughes says one source told him the Jets “want the big guys.” When asked whether that meant size or money, he replied “both.”

Thuney would certainly fit both of those criteria. Finally, Hughes tweets that while Douglas will be “aggressive,” he won’t be reckless, and that he’ll have “his walk-away numbers.” One source told Hughes that “Joe doesn’t do desperate.”