Apparently, around the NFL, they all think it’s just the New York Jets.
Prominent former Jets employees continue to receive interviews for promotions or lateral moves with other teams. Most recently, former Jets director of player personnel Chad Alexander interviewed with the Jacksonville Jaguars for their general manager position. He also previously interviewed twice with the Raiders for that position before Las Vegas decided to hire John Spytek.
Alexander was with the Jets from 2019-23 under Joe Douglas. In the 2024 offseason, he left the team to become the assistant general manager with the Los Angeles Chargers.
From a rational perspective, it should have been difficult for a Jets director of player personnel to receive a promotion. The Jets’ pro personnel evaluations were notoriously terrible under Douglas. Alexander presided over free agency signings and extensions including Greg Van Roten, Frank Gore, Alex Lewis, Corey Davis, Jarrad Davis, Carl Lawson, Laken Tomlinson, C.J. Uzomah, and Jordan Whitehead.
However, it seems clear that the NFL has been largely ignoring executives’ and coaches’ experience with the Jets. Alexander had previously spent 20 seasons with the Ravens and overlapped with Chargers general manager Joe Hortiz.
A very similar story happened with Robert Saleh. After a mostly disastrous head coaching tenure with the Jets, Saleh received multiple head coaching interviews this cycle and seemed poised to sign with the Jaguars before Liam Coen backstabbed the Buccaneers and usurped Saleh’s second interview.
While it is unsurprising that Saleh ultimately landed a defensive coordinator position with the 49ers, the fact that he drew so much interest for another head coaching job once again indicates that teams largely ignored his Jets tenure.
It’s the Jets, they said.
When it comes to players, it seems that teams who said “it’s the Jets” were right. Just in 2024, Mekhi Becton and Sam Darnold experienced a career renaissance outside of New York. Darnold followed Geno Smith’s success in Seattle (although Smith has regressed to an average starter after an excellent 2022 season).
Still, if there’s someone to blame for the Jets’ failures, wouldn’t the main culprit seem to be those who built and coached the teams? As much as Woody Johnson may meddle, many of the team’s struggles were directly connected to Saleh’s philosophical decisions and the front office’s personnel choices.
Then again, Joe Douglas has yet to receive another role, perhaps contradicting this hypothesis. Douglas’ roots with the Ravens and Eagles and his strong reputation around the NFL would have seemingly bought him a new role with ease, but that has not been the case.
Overall, though, there do seem to be tremendous obstacles to success with the Jets that don’t exist for other teams, including ownership, systemic dysfunction, and the New York media. Time will tell whether Alexander and Saleh can overcome their time with the Jets and succeed elsewhere.
