Honeymoons generally average a week or two in length, maybe a month.
Joe Douglas is in the third year of his honeymoon with the Jets as their general manager. The Jets record on his watch is 10-28, with the team having been outscored 991-599 in that span.
That’s not good. Frankly, it’s really, really bad.
And yet, even if you listen closely, you hear almost no griping from Jets fans about the job Douglas has done with nary a hint of a drum beat calling for his job.
Conversely, Giants fans are so disgusted with general manager Dave Gettleman they’re ready to personally escort him out of town and pay for the car service transporting him.
It’s uncertain whether Douglas and Gettleman have a relationship that is anything more than colleagues with the same job title in the same NFL market, but Douglas owes Gettleman a nice dinner or two for deflecting all the negative attention away from him.
When he was hired and given an eye-opening six-year contract, Douglas was brought in at an awkward time — in June 2019 after the draft and free agency had already taken place for that season. So, 2019 was a true get-to-know-the-organization honeymoon period for him.
Douglas was on scholarship in 2019. Since then, though, the results haven’t reflected a job well done by Douglas, who came here with an impressive pedigree having been with the Ravens and Eagles during successful periods.
The Jets were actually respectable (for them) record-wise in 2019, going 7-9. In 2020, Douglas’ first full year as GM, they went 2-14 and they’re 1-5 this season. For those of you scoring at home, that’s 3-19 since 2020, with the team having been outscored 632-323.
Since Douglas has been here, the mantra has been all about rebuilding the roster, taking advantage of his supposed strengths in evaluating personnel and drafting and cleaning up the mess the previous regime left.
Those results, though, have been mixed both in the draft and in free agency, and it makes you wonder when the next regime will be brought in to clean up the mess that Douglas left. On and on the insidious cycle of futility goes.
In fairness, there are a number of yet-to-be-determined conclusions on Douglas’ high draft picks, like left tackle Mekhi Becton (first round 2020), who is hurt, and quarterback Zach Wilson (first round 2021), who is also hurt and is only six games into his NFL career.
Receiver Denzel Mims (second round 2020) and safety Ashtyn Davis (third round 2020) have yet to make any significant contributions. In fact, the most consistent draft pick of Douglas’ classes has been punter Braden Mann. That, of course, is a good news/bad news deal.
Certainly, drafts are a crapshoot and it takes several years before we have concrete answers about players, but if we’re going with the famous Bill Parcells measure of “you are what your record says you are’’ then Douglas has not been good enough. Not even close.
You wonder how many years of roster rebuilding Douglas is going to need (or be allowed to make) before he has the Jets playing at a mere level of competitiveness instead of losing by 41 points to the Patriots as they did on Sunday.
It feels as if the Jets have had more roster teardowns than a downtrodden city neighborhood being gentrified.
Not even the best GMs in the league hit on every free agent, but there have been too many misses for Douglas in the past two years.
Of the dozen or so free agents he signed in 2020, his first full offseason with the team, only a handful remain in key roles — tackle George Fant, center Connor McGovern and guard Greg Van Roten.
Among the one-and-done players from the 2020 class were cornerbacks Brian Poole and Pierre Desir and receiver Breshad Perriman, who was brought in after Douglas misjudged the free-agent market and lost Robby Anderson to the Panthers.
Among the dozen signings this offseason, the team has had mixed results, with receiver Corey Davis yet to stand out, nor receiver Keelan Cole. The Jets lost pass-rusher Carl Lawson for the season with an Achilles tear in preseason as well defensive lineman Vinny Curry, who was diagnosed with a blood disorder, and safety Lamarcus Joyner, who tore a triceps tendon in the season opener.
So, there have been some bad breaks, but Douglas’ body of work has not yet matched the glowing reviews he arrived with before making his first personnel move. Yet he still seems to be coated in Teflon.
Jets owner and chairman Woody Johnson, speaking to reporters at an NFL owners meeting on Tuesday in Manhattan, expressed his “unwavering, steadfast confidence’’ in Douglas and head coach Robert Saleh, who was hired this past offseason.
“This is a good group,” Johnson said. “We will get it right.’’
When?
How many more teardowns and rebuilds must Jets fans endure before the Jets finally “get it right?’’