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Often when a new GM takes over . . .
. . . he makes major changes to the team’s scouting staff.
Joe Douglas didn’t do that in 2019.
Why?
Because he too over in June.
Usually how this works is, most teams fire their general managers after the regular season, and they hire a new guy, a few weeks later.
But since this usally takes place in January, and you are pretty far through the college player evaluation process at that point, you keep the existing scouts in place. After all they have done 3/4’s of the work already, so why throw all that sweat equity out the window?
So new GM’s usually stick with inherited scouts through the first draft, and then after that draft, the new GM makes changes to his scouting staff.
While Joe Douglas didn’t take over in January, he took over in the summer, and while that wasn’t that far into the 2020 scouting process, he decided to keep things status quo until after his first draft. He kept all the scouts. One scout was fired by Adam Gase while he was interim GM.
Another factor in Douglas keeping the scouting staff was likely financial. Remember, Jets owner Chris Johnson is eating a lot of money, on a lot of contracts, with guys like Mike Maccagnan, Todd Bowles and Brian Heimerdinger. And Johnson made Douglas one of the highest paid GM’s in in the NFL at $3 million per. So the new GM probably threw the owner a bone, and didn’t blow up the scouting staff last summer, and make the owner eat even more contract money.
But now that Douglas first draft is over, and he got to “scout the scouts” as they say in football, expect some changes.
He retained Maccagnan’s college scouting director, Jon Carr, and that is very unusual for a new GM. One of the first things they usually do is bring in their own college scouting director. But you get the sense that even though Carr had the title, assistant GM Rex Hogan was essentially the college scouting director. After the draft, Douglas had Hogan join him to address the media about the picks, not Carr.
I hate to say it, because I don’t like when people lose their jobs, but now that Douglas’ first draft is over, expect some scouts to be replaced with more Douglas’ guys . . .
Speaking of Hogan, Douglas continues to lean heavily on his right-hand man at the cornerback position. Hogan came to the Jets from the Indianapolis Colts. Last summer, the Jets traded a sixth-round pick to the Colts for CB Nate Hairston. He played some, but then got benched. He needs to improve the sophistication of eyes in coverage. The Jets signed free agent cornerback Pierre Desir in March. He has talent, but is somewhat injury prone and is now on his fifth team. And then during the 2020 draft, they then traded a sixth-round pick to the Colts for Quincy Wilson, who the Colts soured on.
Interesting headline from a website in 2018 – “Pierre Desir injury opens door for Quincy Wilson.”
Another interesting 2018 headline – “Quincy Wilson isn’t sure why he’s not playing.”
Quincy Wilson is a player the Colts barely played because they had clearly soured on him, and this is after picking him in the second round. He doesn’t run that well for a corner, and might be a candidate to move to safety in the future.
We will see how this turns out, but generally, teams don’t trade corners, or cut (Desir) corners who they think can help them. Players are SO hard to find at the position, and it’s so hard to find the 6-7 corners to fill out your depth chart, that is why the Raiders and Falcons reached for corners in the first round. There’s a shortage of quality corners right now.
April 28, 2020
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