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It’s best to take a “soft touch.”
After Christopher Johnson hired Joe Douglas, he made it clear he would take mostly a hands-off approach and let the GM do his thing.
I can’t remember if he said “soft touch” or “light touch” when addressing the media, and I’m not sure there is a transcript from that particular exchange, but it was one of those two words “soft” or “light.”
But his point was he wasn’t going to meddle.
Then again, he never really was a meddler with Mr. Coffee, the GM prior to Douglas.
But when his brother Woody came back from Great Britain, and took back the controlling interest of the team, some wondered if Douglas would now be subjected to meddling.
While Woody was never on the Daniel Snyder, David Tepper or Jimmy Haslam level of meddling, he did get involved in some big football moves over the years – like the Brett Favre and Tim Tebow trades and the signing of Darrelle Revis the second time.
But it seems since he’s returned from England, Woody has seemingly been hands-off of the football operation.
Christopher has been a positive influence.
Look, an owner can do whatever they want with their football team. It’s their team that they spent a lot of money to buy.
But the best approach is to hire good football people and let them do their thing, Most owners’ wheelhouse is on the business side, the world they came from prior to owning an NFL team.
A fan named Scott, tweeted at Woody recently, “Woody get more involved please. This franchise has been an embarrassment. So far Joe Douglas has been less than impressive. Advise him to draft Sauce Gardner – he is a sure thing and a true difference-maker. We don’t need to take chances with some edge at 4 that is a question mark.”
But a fan named Jason Fernandes quickly shot him down:
“Stop!! JD has finally got us going in the right direction and I haven’t felt this optimistic as a fan in years! I’ll give up on this franchise if JD and Saleh get fired.”
Fernandes nailed it. Let Douglas do his thing.
Look, the record hasn’t been great so far for Douglas, but people who can’t see they finally have a high-level GM, what can I say? He knows how to evaluate talent, which was pretty clear last year with those three picks in a row, Alijah Vera-Tucker, Elijah Moore and Michael Carter, and he generally doesn’t give out reckless contracts.
One big thing he needs to work on is staying away from confirmation bias, because that has done in many a GM. Keep and play the best players regardless of where they were picked or how much they make. There have might have been some confirmation bias going on last year with draft picks.
But the best approach for the Jets is for Woody to leave Douglas alone and let him do his thing, and by all accounts, that is what is going on.
Because owners making player personnel decisions almost never works out in the long run.
Just ask Dallas Cowboys fans.
April 6, 2022
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