First, Robert Saleh. Now, Joe Douglas.
Woody Johnson is cleaning house for his woeful New York Jets in what has been a hugely disappointing season.
Douglas was fired Tuesday as the Jets' general manager, the latest shakeup for a franchise that had Super Bowl aspirations with a healthy Aaron Rodgers at quarterback but has limped to a 3-8 start and appears likely to miss the playoffs for a 14th consecutive year.
The dismissal of Douglas, who was 30-64 and had no winning seasons in his tenure, came exactly six weeks after Johnson fired Saleh as coach on Oct. 8 after the Jets were 2-3 to open the year.
“Today, I informed Joe Douglas he will no longer serve as the general manager of the New York Jets,” Johnson said in a statement issued by the team. “I want to thank Joe for his commitment to the Jets over the last six years and wish him and his family the best moving forward.”
Johnson also announced that Phil Savage, who has served as a senior football adviser since 2019, will be the Jets’ interim general manager for the rest of the season. Johnson said the team would immediately begin the process of finding a new GM.
Douglas, who was in the final year of his contract after being hired in 2019, was not consulted by Johnson when the owner made the decision to dismiss Saleh and replace him on an interim basis with defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich. New York is 1-5 under Ulbrich.
Johnson said at the time he thought the Jets had “one of the most talented teams that has ever been assembled” in his 25 years as owner — and Douglas was largely responsible. But the absence of Douglas' input in the firing of Saleh was a clear indication that the GM's job could also be in jeopardy.
"I come in here every day and just want to do whatever I can to help this team reach its goals and reach its destination,” Douglas said two weeks ago when asked if he was worried about his job status. “And whatever happens, happens.”
The Jets were 3-6 at that time and Douglas insisted the team could turn things around and make a late run.
“Obviously, it starts with me,” Douglas said. “I can look back and there’s quite a few things that I could have done better. Obviously, when a situation happens like what happened four weeks ago (Saleh's firing), you have a lot of self-reflective moments on the things that you could have done better to keep that from happening.
“But we’ve got an opportunity here with these last stretch of games to change that narrative.”
The Jets have since dropped two more games, including a humiliating 31-6 loss at Arizona two weeks ago followed by New York blowing a late lead and losing 28-27 to Indianapolis last Sunday.
And Johnson apparently thought it was time during the Jets' bye-week break to complete what is a major overhaul rather than wait until the end of the season — when it appears likely the franchise will extend the NFL's longest active postseason drought.
Johnson's future outside of football could also be a factor in beginning the search now. He served as the U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom during President-elect Donald Trump's first term, when Johnson's brother Christopher was in charge of the team and hired Saleh. Woody Johnson could potentially fill that role again with Trump elected for the second time, and that would cause him to relinquish day-to-day operations of the team at some point next year.
Douglas was widely celebrated when he swung the trade — with Johnson's urging — to acquire Rodgers from Green Bay. But the four-time NFL MVP tore his left Achilles tendon four snaps into the 2023 season opener and the Jets never recovered, finishing 7-10.
Rodgers entered training camp this summer healthy and with renewed zest for playing — and revived the franchise's Super Bowl hopes in the process. Instead, the Jets have been arguably the NFL's most disappointing team — and now the future of Rodgers, who will turn 41 on Dec. 2 and has a year remaining on his contract, is uncertain.
The failure of Rodgers to produce anywhere close to his usual level while with the Packers will be a stain on Douglas' resume. The GM's inability to successfully build a consistently solid offensive line will be another, along with the team's decision to trade quarterback Sam Darnold to Carolina and draft Zach Wilson as his replacement with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2021 draft.
But Douglas also made several key moves to establish a young core, including drafting cornerback Sauce Gardner, wide receiver Garrett Wilson, edge rusher Jermaine Johnson and running back Breece Hall in the first two rounds of the 2022 draft.
Savage has extensive NFL experience as an executive, including front-office stints with Cleveland, where he was the GM for four years in his second stint with the Browns, as well as Baltimore and Philadelphia.
He was also the executive director for the Senior Bowl for six years, and served as general manager of the Arizona Hotshots of the Alliance of American Football in 2018 before joining the Jets.
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL
FILE - New York Jets general manager Joe Douglas listens during a news conference at the team's NFL football training facility in Florham Park, N.J., Wednesday, April 26, 2023. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)
New York Jets general manager Joe Douglas speaks to reporters at the team’s training facility in Florham Park, N.J., on Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Dennis Waszak Jr.)
WASHINGTON (AP) — As President-elect Donald Trump digs in on his pick of former Rep. Matt Gaetz for attorney general, Republican senators are divided over how much information they will demand to move his confirmation — and how much to push back on Trump as he demands that they quickly rubber stamp his Cabinet once he takes office in January.
Gaetz, who has been calling senators and is expected to start meeting with some of them as soon as this week, is an unconventional pick for the nation’s top law enforcement official. His nomination creates a confirmation climb in the Senate, where many Republicans are deeply uncomfortable with his selection.
The Florida Republican spent his congressional career agitating against the Justice Department and has faced a House Ethics investigation into whether he engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, accepted improper gifts and sought to obstruct government investigations of his conduct — allegations Gaetz denies. He is also deeply unpopular within his own party after leading the push to oust former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy last year.
Publicly, Republican senators say they will give Gaetz the same due process that they give any other nominee. Most are loath to criticize him directly. But they are split on whether to demand access to the ethics report, which the House ethics committee could choose to release after Gaetz resigned from the House last week.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, who has positioned himself as Trump’s top ally in Congress, said last week that he will “strongly request” that the Ethics committee not release the results of its investigation.
Republican Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, who will become Senate majority leader in January, deferred to Johnson, saying Monday that the ethics report is “a House issue.” But several in his conference argued that the Senate should see the report, whether it is released publicly or not.
“There’s nothing about that that would smell right, to say, ‘Hey, there’s a report but none of us want to see it,’” said Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla.
Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin, who served in the House with Gaetz, said the ethics report is important for the Senate’s “advice and consent” role laid out in the Constitution. “I think the report from the House plays a pivotal role in that,” he said.
Others said the information would come out one way or another, even if it isn't released. “I’m going to honor Speaker Johnson’s position," said North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis. "I think it’s a reasonable position.”
The simmering clash between the Senate, House and Trump could be just the first of many to come. Trump has made clear he expects next year’s unified Republican Congress to give him broad leeway on his nominees, and has already been making some calls to senators.
Cabinet nominees have traditionally provided a flood of paperwork to Senate committees ahead of their confirmation hearings, participating in background checks by the FBI and filling out lengthy questionnaires that probe every aspect of their lives and careers. But Trump’s transition has already signaled that it might not request the background checks and has so far declined to sign agreements with the White House and the Department of Justice to allow that process to begin.
The documentation, including the criminal background checks and financial vetting, could be key for senators in both parties who have questions about Gaetz and some of Trump's other more controversial nominees, including Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence, Pete Hegseth for secretary of Defense and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for secretary of Health and Human Services.
In the absence of the traditional process, whether to proceed without an FBI background check would be up to individual committee chairs, who will be under tremendous pressure from Trump and his allies to move his nominees quickly. On Tuesday, Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, the incoming No. 2 Republican under Thune, said the Senate will begin hearings once Republicans take the majority on Jan. 3 and start holding confirmation votes once Trump is inaugurated on Jan. 20.
Republican senators say they will demand that documentation, but it’s unclear how that might work if Trump’s transition doesn’t consent to it.
“I think that if they want a speedy consideration of this nomination we’ve got to have as much transparency as we can have,” said Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, who will serve as Senate Judiciary Committee chairman next year. “Because you’ve heard my colleagues, especially on the Republican side, say that they have some questions.”
Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker, the incoming chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he wants a traditional process involving the full FBI background check for Hegseth and the committee’s other nominees. “We should do it by the numbers,” Wicker said.
Democrats are wary, though, that the process could get muddled, or curtailed, as Trump puts the full force of his pressure on Senate Republicans.
“If there’s a cursory background check, like we call 20 people — that’s not going to be appropriate,” said Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed, the current chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee who will be the panel’s top Democrat next year.
Meanwhile. Gaetz has already paid a visit to at least one group of potential allies, the hard-right House Freedom Caucus, where he outlined for the group “some of the things that that need to be done at the Department of Justice to end the weaponization,” said Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., the chairman of the Freedom Caucus.
Among the ideas Gaetz discussed was “eliminating a lot of the senior staff," Harris said.
As for the allegations of sexual misconduct against Gaetz, Harris dismissed them saying, “last time I looked, in America, you’re innocent until proven guilty.” He said he did not believe the House Ethics files on Gaetz should be released.
“We think that the president deserves to get his selections approved for the cabinet, and Mr. Gaetz knows what to do to end the weaponization of the department," Harris said.
Speaker Johnson also made clear his position Tuesday, telling reporters that the Senate should do its job and “sure, take a look, do a deep dive” and then move them along for confirmation so “the president has the team in place to do what the American people have elected him to do.”
“I think President Trump is looking for persons who will shake up the status quo,” Johnson said. “And we got a mandate in this election cycle to do that.”
Matt Gaetz talks before President-elect Donald Trump speaks during an America First Policy Institute gala at his Mar-a-Lago estate, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
