Jets’ Joe Douglas deserves credit for long-view approach in first round of NFL draft
NY Post
When Joe Douglas selected Olu Fashanu on Thursday night, he chose cauliflower over cake, water over whiskey and substance over sizzle.
Picking an offensive tackle with the Jets’ first-round pick was not the sexy decision, but it was the smart one. For an organization that has made plenty of dumb decisions in the NFL draft in its history, this one should go down as one of the wise ones.
We’ll find out in a few years whether Fashanu is a player. For now, we can only evaluate the logic and it is hard to find any issues with what Douglas did here. Yes, it may have been more fun to see Brock Bowers catching passes from Aaron Rodgers, but Douglas has to make sure his quarterback is protected above everything else.
Rodgers will turn 41 during the season. He will be one year removed from Achilles surgery when the season starts. If Rodgers is going to lose anything to age and injury, it will be his mobility. The Jets have to limit the number of hits their franchise quarterback takes. A sack on the fourth play of last season ended his year without a completion.
Douglas made moves in March to shore up the offensive line by signing left tackle Tyron Smith and guard John Simpson and trading for right tackle Morgan Moses. But Smith and Moses are both 33 years old. Smith has not played a full season since 2015 and Moses had surgery to repair a torn pectoral muscle after last season with the Ravens.
The Jets almost certainly will need Fashanu to play at some point as a rookie. If they don’t, the season probably went incredibly well with a healthy offensive line. Jets fans know how rare that is, though. They had 13 different starting offensive line combinations in 2023 and ended up starting players who were waiver-wire pickups or practice-squad elevations.