Joe Douglas’ plan to fix the Jets can’t end with Trevor Lawrence



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You must be wondering what opposing coaches think when they start spotting the Jets before they face them. Usually coaches go through a team’s strengths, what they need to take away from a team, which players they need to be concerned about.

With the Jets, that could lead to a lot of silence.

The lack of talent on the Jets roster is glaring right now. It shouldn’t come as a surprise to a 0-10 team, but it’s brought home each week the Jets take the field. The Jets play and start players who should probably be on a practice squad somewhere. They are less talented than a college play.

This is the task that now falls to General Manager Joe Douglas. The easy part will be drafting Trevor Lawrence if the Jets end up with the No.1 pick. Finding a new coach will be essential, but should also be doable with the right process in place. The real trick Douglas faces now is to do a roster overhaul.

A decade of bad drafts and bad free agent decisions left the Jets here. This season must be at its lowest, right? It can’t get any worse than that.

Douglas prepared the Jets for success by charging on draft picks (nine in each of the next two drafts) and tidying up the salary cap. The Jets are expected to have over $ 80 million in ceiling space.

This gives Douglas flexibility. If the plan begins with writing Lawrence, the next line would be better to give him a support system. We’ll never know what Sam Darnold might have been if the Jets had backed him up correctly. Darnold threw to 20 different wide receivers in his time with the Jets, most of them forgettable. Add in backs and tight ends and Darnold threw to 38 different players. There was no continuity for Darnold and very few playmakers around him.

Look at how the Jets worded before and after taking on Darnold. The team took three wide receivers in both drafts before selecting Darnold, none higher than the third round. ArDarius Stewart was that third round and was a known character risk when the Jets drafted him. After taking on Darnold, former general manager Mike Maccagnan took tight end Chris Herndon in the fourth round of that same 2018 draft and tight end Trevon Wesco in 2019, but took no wide receiver. Douglas began to correct that mistake by taking Denzel Mims in the second round this year.

It’s not like the Jets made up for these free will failures. Jamison Crowder was a good signing last year, but that’s about it.

Then you get to the offensive line where Mekhi Becton was the first lineman the Jets drafted in the first two rounds in a decade. Neglect on the line has led Darnold to be sacked 82 times in his career. There are 10 quarterbacks who have been sacked more than he has since joining the league in 2018, but all of them have played more games.

The Jets’ holes aren’t just on offense, of course. They desperately need a rider who can win head-to-head battles and cornerbacks who can slow down opposing passing attacks. Sunday’s posting by the Chargers underscored that. Keenan Allen may have just caught another pass.

Douglas will not be able to fill all the gaps this offseason. He had a few missteps in free agency last offseason, but his first draft class looks promising, starting with Becton and Mims.

Now, Douglas might have the chance to recruit generational talent into Lawrence. It won’t be the hardest part. Surrounding Lawrence with enough additional talent will be.

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