LISTEN | GM Joe Douglas (4/20)

get to Thursday. But at the start of the week, listen, if you're a Jets fan, right now, this is what it's all about, organizational building, and Joe Douglas is first draft as general manager. We've been talking about it for months. Eight draft picks in all that number eleven overall selection and of course the four in the top eighty overall. But listen, this extend past the draft, Greens, because you're

gonna be active on Saturday. As soon as that draft ends, Joe and his guys to be on the phone trying to get some priority undrafted free agents in green and White. I wonder how the virtual draft, and really the virtual pre draft process, how that will affect the undrafted free agent process, if there will be better talent compared to

years past. I'm just curious how it all breakdown. But you spoke to Joe Douglas after Joe Douglass spoke to the media, and one of the things that Joe Douglas spoke to the media about was the status of Jamal Adams and the Jets. But last week Adam Schefter said Jamal Adams probably not going to participate in the virtual off season program, which Joe Douglas emphasized our voluntary. But then he also said that the plan is still for Jamal Adams to be a Jet for life. Yeah, you're right, Greens,

if you really think about it. There was nothing new on the Jamal Adams Adams front from Joe Douglas today. He reiterated that his plan is to keep Jamal Adams a Jet for a long time. He did say that he hopes to connect with Adams after the draft, so we'll have to wait a little bit for any potential news on that front. I know you took this away as well. He said, my attent is not to move any players. But Joe Douglas has said it for months now that if a team calls, he will listen. Yeah.

I think that's the essence of being a general manager. Somebody calls and wants to make a deal for one of your players, You pick up the phone, you listen, you evaluate, and you go from there. And it feels like a similar chain of events to what happened around the trade deadline in October. You think about Jomal Adams name was in the public then saying with Levy on Bell, but Joe Douglas made it clear that he wasn't shopping

those guys. He was just listening to calls. In terms of the draft, some players will get dealt, not necessarily Jets, but across the league. You think about guys that are potentially on the trade block per se, or guys that haven't even been discussed, And I think that Joe Douglass point remain is the same. He's not looking to move any of these guys. And the other part of this whole thing to me is maybe he hasn't spoken to Jamal Adams since the last time that Joe Douglas spoke

to the media. Well, this is draft season. Maybe it's put on the backburner per se until after the draft, when the draft is finally over. Because this is really such a long process from last mayor June to present that it doesn't feel like it's the right time to even try to go about that. There's a couple of points here that I'd like to stress. Number one is the off season program for the Jets, since they don't have a new coach, begins April, so the virtual off

season program has not begun. That's my first point. The second one is Joe Douglas said if he believes he is a franchise quarterback, that is the one player on his roster that is off limits. He has talked about Sam Donald bean a franchise quarterback, so Sam Donald is off limits. Finally, to Green's, are we talking samantics here?

I don't think we're talking samantics because to me, shopping a player means Joe Douglas getting on the phone after his conference call today and calling twenty teams and saying, Hey, I'm willing to part with this guy. What are you

gonna give me? Listening to calls to me is taking a call from one of your peers who is a general manager in the National Football League and having a conversation, and if they bring up a player, of course you always assess the value because otherwise, to your point, you're not doing your job as a general manager. I totally

agree with that. And Joe Douglas said to you that he learned a lot under Ozzy Knewsom, who, of course he believes should be a Hall of Fame general manager for the Baltimore Ravens before Erica Costa took over a couple of years ago. And we'll talk about it after your interview right now with Joe Douglas. What Joe learned from Ozzy Newsom. Here he is Joe Douglas one on one. Joe, thank you so much for joining us. What do you think about the opportunity at hand for you and this

organization draft weekend? Oh, great opportunity. Eric eight picks four in the top seventy nine. It's a chance to really bring in guys that were excited about, guys that we we thinking come in here and make an impact. Fortify this roster really adds to it. We've had great meetings with our coaching staff over the last week. Are our coaching staff and scouts have done a great job collaborating

navigating through the technology. I feel like our meetings is no different than having him in the facility at Flora Park,

So really excited about this week. How much did the past ten or eleven months give you an advantage as you head to the draft because you were able to look at this roster from a thirty thousand foot forty foot level and see exactly what you have before you get your draft plan in place, no question, Eric being able to be here throughout training camp, throughout the season, really evaluating on a day to day basis, getting another staff,

being around the scheme offense, defense, special teams, building rapport with players and staff, having a chance to get in the meetings with our own scouts and our own personnel guys and see how they evaluate, see how what lens they're looking through players, and it's really helped. I feel like it helped with our free agency process and it's

gonna help us this week. Speaking of your free agency process, what are similarities and then talk about the differences as far as entering free agency compared to the draft when you're looking at players. Yeah, I think our our process is very similar far as how we go through setting up our free agent board versus how we go up

to go through setting up our draft board. We still go through similar meetings, format, similar discussions with coaches, and so it's a good forum for personnel and scouts and coaches to get together and just discuss each player's individual fit for this roster, this team, the scheme. It really helps us develop a consensus after after going through the meetings and hashion outs disagreements. So take us behind the scenes.

What is Joe d like in those meetings with your coaching staff and also obviously your personnel guys, but the prospects as well. You're a little bit in the weeds, running the run the meeting, making sure that the pace is good, that the format is good, the right questions are being asked, the right questions of being answered. But I think once we go through each coach of scouts individual opinion on the player, Okay, no holds barred. How does this guy? How does this guy help the New

York Jets? Who is better than is their comp to this player in the National Football League? Talk about the makeup, how he's gonna fit in the building, not only amongst the coaches staff and personnel staff, but with everyone around the building. We try to come to as summation of what this person is going to bring. What are the final days and hours like, because you just said our draft board is not set until Thursday night. Yeah, we're

going through players. We're having strategy meetings and making phone calls, were gathering information partilary eleventh hour on these players. And I think we have a great group. We have great contacts around college football that can help us. But with any questions that we need answered, you know, we've got a great group that can come together and determine who the best guys are going to be for us moving forward. He started a professional career, of course, with the Baltimore

Ravens in two thousand. What did you take from the way as he knew some navigated throughout the draft process over the years, Ozzy was the calm and the storm, you know, in Ozzie's mind once today, it was in the bar. We went over every scenario, We talked about every player comparison that we could, and we did all that while things were calm and rational, and so even when there was perceived pressure or perceived things were heating up.

You know, Ozzie was always always the calm in the middle of the storm, and he brought that, you know, every day and every year in the draft. That was always unique for me to see to see Ozzy operate. So I think for us, I think it's important that we that we discuss every every scenario, every everything that could come up, so that when things are getting hectic through Thursday, Friday, Saturday that Okay, we've discussed this, and this is a decision that we made when everything was calm,

and we're going to stick to that decision. Obviously, Joe, I'm not gonna ask you about specifics here, but what's your trading philosophy, because speaking of Ozzy, he had quite a run there where the at first pick he was either moving up or moving back. I can't remember the number of years, but he was awfully active. Yeah. Look, I mean, if the right opportunity presents itself, we're gonna be as flexible as we need to the right opportunity presents itself. If a player starts to fall, we will

be aggressive. If another team wants to reach out and and they want to be aggressive, we're gonna listen to that. So I think we have a lot of flexibility at eleven to help this team. Speaking of flexibility, but how about the four picks? Like you mentioned early on here in the top eighty overall, including two and a third round. Oh yeah, having picktight and then two early third round picks, I mean, there's there's gonna be a lot of meat

in that draft left. I mean there's gonna be a lot of good players that are choose from I think those three picks, we really have an opportunity set up set ourselves up. How about the undrafted free agent process as well, because I know a lot of people think the draft unsay after Thursday or even that's seventh round on Saturday. But in terms of getting in there and getting some quality people after the draft is over, Day three is a great opportunity to really really make your

draft from good to great. The great thing about Day three is that everyone around league circles, fans everyone, they know about these first and second round players. They've been discussed on NFL Network, ESPN, they know, they know about them. Only the scouts know about about the Day three guys. So you're talking about the late round free agent guys, and there's a lot of good players that make your

team better in that group. So we spend a lot of time going over those guys, making sure that we have the right sequence, making sure we've targeted the right guys for us, and we have good we have a really good post draft free agency protocol that we're gonna follow. Undraft of free agency is just a great opportunity to

really take your take your draft from good to great. Joe, would you say you guys go into this weekend with a quiet confidence knowing that you put in the work, You had healthy discussions, you had guys on the ground throughout the year filing thorough reports, and now you have the ammal to really help this organization take a step forward. You want to make sure that you've dotted every eye, you've crossed every team in terms of the detail of

each player. So right now we're going through that. I feel confident in the work that our scouts and our coaches have done on these players. And now with the meetings that we've had, with the discussions that we've had, we formulate the game plan based off that, based off these great weekend meetings that we've had. You execute it. You execute the plan. I feel good about our protocols are format to get that done. How much of a weight do you put into character? I know we talked

about talent all the time. But you've been very specific in what you're looking for in terms of a guy what he brings on the field, but also inside the room and potentially in the community as well. Yeah, that's a big thing. That's a big thing for us because guys have to love football. Talked about that almost every time we've we've gotten together, Eric, and football character is important. Personal character is important. How you treat people. You know

what kind of teammate you are. And we talk about abilities, and we're talking about coach ability, reliability. Those are some of the best abilities that a player can have. Those are all the things that we discuss and and uh, it carries a lot of weight. And lastly, I gotta imagine this is not the way you envisioned your first draft as Jets the general manager. But with all that being said, as the world combats an invisible enemy and COVID nineteen and everything going on around you, what do

you think it's going to be like for you? Are you gonna have a chance to say, take a step back and say, you know, this is it, this is my time, this is what we've worked for together as an organization. But you've been in this league since two thousand what do you think that first night in two thousand twenty that draft is gonna mean to you. Yeah, you haven't been in the weeds for the last few

weeks with free agency and draft. I've just tried to stay in the moment and not thinking about anything outside of the team in the organization. It's a unique experience. Is pretty cool. This is personally, this is what you've worked so hard to do to get to this point, to try to help an organization and reach its ultimate goal.

Knowing that we've got guys that have been in the trench trenches for the last few months and since August, and it makes you feel good and excited about the opportunity that we're gonna have starting on Thursday to really help this organization. Thanks Joe, We'll be talking to you throughout the week. Okay, Thanks man. Yeah, I thought Joe was great, and you spoke to earlier in this pre draft process, more so talking about free agency, and I

thought he was great. Then I thought he was great in this interview here and going back to what he learned under Ozzy Knewsom, the calm in the storm and really focusing on the preparation when everything is calm, so that if things start to get a little bit hectic in the draft, you stick to your guns. You stick to what you know, what you believe in, and that's how you execute a drafts. I think the man is just so steady, and what you see is what you

get from Joe. The person that you just heard during that interview or on the conference call with the media, that's the guy you're getting behind the scenes. Uh. He is a measured person, very confident in his abilities, but also willing to listen to everybody on his staff, and he's confident in this group. So when this weekend gets under way, the first virtual draft in NFL history, I don't want to anticipate Joe Douglas his heartbeat to jump at all. I think Joe's ready for this. He has.

His NFL career has brought him to this point. So I think you're gonna see a lot of Ozzy Newsome in him this weekend and in the weekends. Uh down the line, because I think he's gonna be leading this team for a lot of drafts, hopefully the one and only virtual draft. Because although this is very unique, I I like it a lot more when it's in person. I'm sure Joe Douglas would enjoy that a little bit more than being at home in his at home office.

Which by the way, I know this is a podcast, but in the interview, your one on one interview you, which you can watch on New York Jets dot com. I love the Joe Namith photo right behind Joe Douglas, right over his head. Got to give them man props for that. I'm wondering if Steve Piazza, director i T, who works with Tommy Murphy Murph of course Long Island native,

who heads up the whole i T group. I wonder if Piazza brought that over to him, you know, this week, or maybe just maybe Joe has had that one around for some time. But yeah, iconic photograph of Joe Namath. And by the way, when I went back and looked at that greens, I think that's one of the photos I scanned back in the old archives that we but

you bank call in Hempstead. I swear I swear on that because the old images greens, they weren't on slides and there was no such thing as digital obviously, they were all prints. So for us to keep those images, we actually had to scan them that's one of the images I scanned. So there you go. He a is a part of Joe Douglas is at home office. And something that Joe talked about also in the conference call

was about free agency but after the draft. We've talked about the different waves of free agency before and the first couple of days is the first wave, then a couple of weeks after that is the second wave. Well, after the draft, it almost seems like there's an injection of life into free agency, and Joe Douglas said that he anticipates that it will happen a little sooner after the draft than in years past. And there are some

good players still left on the market. So depending on let's say who and what positions the Jets attack in the draft, they could still add a valuable piece in free agency afterwards. Yeah, you're right about that, and that was very interesting and that's something we can touch upon with Joe further this coming draft weekend. But the market was different this year Green's I think a lot of

players thought the market might be different early. So when we talk about tears and free agency, I mean, what we're actually going to witness probably is a new tier post draft. Uh, the Jet do have money under the cap, so they do have some flexibility if they want to make some moves. And there are some veterans out there who have had productive careers who still can give you some value on the field in looking for new homes.

Some of these guys that are still on the market, the Headliners Jadeveon Clowney, you and I have talked about Jason Peters in the past, Vinny Curry, Logan Ryan. I mean, those are just some guys that stand out to me without looking at a list. But I think that Joe Douglas has a plan not only for the draft, not only for who's on the board at pick eleven. Maybe

trade up, trade back scenarios round one through seven. But when you think about where the Jets are right now, and you think about the potential impact of a draft that has four picks in the top seventy nine and eight overall e a one team. One scenario that I've come back to multiple times is the Saints in two thousand seventeen, coming office seven and nine season, they held the number eleven overall pick. It sounds a little familiar

right now. Well, in that draft d A at eleven, they selected Marshawn Lattimore, the cornerback out of Ohio State. Then at thirty one they selected Ryan Ramcheck the tackle, and then you go further and further. They got Alvin Kamara in the third round. They got Marcus Williams the safety in the second round, and then they got a

contributor and Trey Hendrickson and alex anzelone. When I look at that draft, you think about that's probably one of the anomalies where the Saints really nailed almost all of their draft picks. I'm not saying Joe Douglas will do that, but he has an opportunity to add a number of Day one contributors, if not starters if you hit on these guys not only in rounds one and two, but really three through seven, and of course, like we've talked

about before, the undrafted guys. Yeah, especially in this draft. I was talking to Bob with Shusan about this the other day, the Voice of the Jets. He said he wouldn't be surprised if the Jets took the three or four offensive players in those first over those first four picks. Uh ending up with that ladder pick in the third round. You know, so I know free Uh months now, people have pegged either tackle or receiver to the Jets at eleven. If they stay there, well, we'll have to see how

that all plays out, no doubt about that. But Uh, the wide receiver class, we've talked about its depth, we talked about its talent and how far it extends. There are some tackle prospects that I think people probably shouldn't be sleeping on either. UM. So, I think this is a good draft for the Jets going in because a lot of their perceived needs on paper greens. I think there are good classes in those groups, specifically offensively wide

receiver and tackle. When we're talking about happen our arms around Sam Donald, that's what the Jets are trying to do here. And then on the defensive side of the ball, I do think it's an interesting edge class. I want to know where is the drop off for the cornerbacks boundary cornerbacks. I talked to um Jim Naggy, the executive

director of the Senior Bowls the other day. He said he really liked slot cornerbacks, and no doubt about it, those nickels are very important in the National Football League, but the Jets more so at the need on the outside right now. I think that's a great point that the way the draft is shaping up right now fits what the Jets perceivably need on their roster heading into it. And we'll all see what happens on Thursday night, just

a couple of days away. And on tomorrow's podcast, e A myself Anthony Becks, we're going through a mock draft over the next two podcasts, and then on Thursday, the whole thing comes together. And that was another edition of the Official Jets Podcast powered by Amazon Web Services. E A. I'll see you tomorrow for the mock draft. Looking forward to a grace