Jets' Roster Choices Criticized by NFL GM: Joe Douglas Is Aaron Rodgers' Assistant GM

The New York Jets spent the 2023 offseason building their roster to the liking of Aaron Rodgers, only for the future Hall of Famer to play all of one series before tearing his Achilles.

The strategy of Rodgers acting as a shadow general manager led to criticism around the NFL as the Jets finished a 7-10 season.

"Rodgers isn't the assistant GM. Joe Douglas is the assistant GM," one AFC general manager told Zack Rosenblatt and Dianna Russini of The Athletic.

The Jets acquired Allen Lazard, Randall Cobb, Tim Boyle, Billy Turner and Adrian Amos in an attempt to surround Rodgers with familiar faces in the locker room. They also hired Nathaniel Hackett as offensive coordinator. Rodgers won back-to-back MVPs in 2020 and 2021 with Hackett as his offensive coordinator in Green Bay.

The result of those moves was nothing short of a disaster. None of the former Packers had much of a positive impact on the field, and Hackett's offense was among the NFL's without Rodgers to lead the charge.

While there was talk of major changes in New York after the team finished 7-10, it appears ownership is moving forward hoping Rodgers' return from an Achilles tear will paper over those issues.

Rodgers will be a 40-year-old coming off a catastrophic injury, so the likelihood of that happening is 50-50 at best, but the Jets have a Super Bowl-caliber defense. If they could even get the offense performing at a league-average level, they're a playoff team and have explosive young skill-position players in Garrett Wilson and Breece Hall ready to take the next step.

Douglas should focus on fortifying the roster with talent rather than names familiar to Rodgers in 2024. Doing that alone might quell the criticism that Rodgers is the one actually running things.