There are two arguments: for and against. First, we tackle the argument for why the New York Jets are on the verge of a Super Bowl.
I bet you—the New York Jets fan reading this text on the internet at this very moment—could not wait to click on this article fast enough. You probably clicked as soon as “Jets” and “Super Bowl” intertwined in your mind.
You may have even clicked to your own technology’s detriment. For example, clicking while consuming an orange means your phone or keyboard is now forever sticky. Or, at the very least, “forever” until it’s thoroughly washed with the right cleaner.
Forever is an interesting thought.
The non-Jets fan will forever laugh at such a headline and mock his/her friendly-neighborhood Jet backer. The mere fact that “Jets” and “Super Bowl” appear in any headline makes for good fodder in those corners. For the Jets fan, “forever” hits home when thinking Jets and Super Bowl, as it does for those fans who enjoy the torture.
Masochism aside (well, never completely when dealing with this fanbase), even the Jet fan who revels in the misery couldn’t help but click this headline faster than Roger Vick‘s Jets career—though they’ll never publicly admit such a fact.
Hope is what sports are all about. The belief that now (or soon) will be the time you have waited a lifetime for always pulls emotional strings. No matter how much money a Mike Francesa has made off the misery and pain on the airwaves, hope is the single-most-impactful reason fans remain engaged.
It’s why we start with the “argument for” why the New York Jets are on the verge of a Super Bowl.
Joe Douglas understands team-building
This is the single biggest reason for hope. The NFL is a hard salary cap league that doesn’t allow front offices to boast heartwarming emotions. The franchise that holds onto a franchise star past his prime too often is the same organization that never quite nails down a successful pattern. The general manager who believes an age-27 running back is still “young” is one who can be talked into pretty much anything.
Joe Douglas understands these notions and so much more.
It’s tough to be a Jets fan who voted “no” to the Le’Veon Bell and C.J. Mosley signings. While an entire fanbase celebrated the veteran snags, you, the one who didn’t quite get it, ask, “Why would we sign these guys at this stage of the game? When looking around the NFL, and digging for Super Bowl patterns, very rarely is this the correct route to travel.”
One year later, Mike Maccagnan’s parting gifts are both looking to bounce back. Mosley’s groin injury may make his time in New York a “what could have been” situation while Bell is looking to do something, anything with at least a league-average offensive line (the Jets’ unit that held him back a year ago). In Douglas’s mind, these guys are signings that can only “finish the puzzle,” not help build it.
Look at this past offseason. The man who won two Super Bowls in Baltimore and one in Philadelphia didn’t reach for a single player (save for an argument about George Fant). Instead of desperately pleading and throwing dollars at overpriced free agents, Douglas forced the player to return to him. Jordan Jenkins and Brian Poole are just two examples of Douglas’s extremely scary financial Thunderdome.
Perhaps the most important Douglas quality is his fundamental belief in team-building. On his very first day, he uttered a sentence Maccagnan didn’t blurt out once over his five NFL drafts.
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