Joe Douglas better be right about Jets’ Haason Reddick debacle

Joe Douglas hemmed and hawed his way through the inevitable Haason Reddick inquisition. This is his story and he’s sticking to it — no regrets making the trade and no regrets making it without getting a signature on the dotted line.

A new Jets season is about to begin, and it is about to begin without Haason Reddick.

And so there was Douglas, sending out a message to Reddick on Thursday that sounded very much like this:

We want you.

But we don’t need you.

For his sake, he better be right.

Douglas has the leverage for now over an elite pass rusher who will turn 30 on Sept. 22 and cannot afford career suicide in desperate pursuit of an extension in the neighborhood of $25 million per season.

But no one will care about his leverage if his team should stub its toe out of the gate without Reddick.

In which case Jets fans would suddenly care that for all his talk about clear and direct communication before and immediately after the trade with the Eagles with Team Reddick, Douglas spent every waking hour since April 1 opting not to communicate with him.

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Jets fans will not suddenly care about Reddick reneging on any verbal agreement and blowing off OTAs and training camp.

It is why Douglas, who understandably must weigh the fact that some of his other employees will be awaiting paydays, should do himself a favor and pick up the phone and make every attempt to resolve this impasse.

“I think this will all get resolved,” Douglas said.

Douglas threw his Hail Aaron pass last year and it fell incomplete, and he is fortunate he gets to throw it again this year.

Aaron Rodgers, the 40-year-old future first-ballot Hall of Famer with the rehabilitated 40-year-old Achilles, has the fate of the Jets regime resting on his 40-year-old right arm that looks more like a 30-year-old right arm in the eyes of head coach Robert Saleh.

Douglas finds himself on the win-or-else hot seat because he whiffed twice on Zach Wilson — using the second-overall pick in the 2021 NFL draft on him and then designating him the backup to the 39-year-old future first-ballot Hall of Famer.

Three strikes and yer out!

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We want you:

“We think he can help us win games.”

“We’re gonna be excited to have him when he decides to arrive.”

“Everyone here is gonna welcome him with open arms.”

We don’t need you:

“We have a really deep room with a lot of good players. … We still feel great about our D-line depth as a whole.”

“The locker room’s in a phenomenal place. Training camp was unbelievable. The energy, the passion, the togetherness that the team shows has been pretty remarkable.”

“I feel like this has been a remarkable training camp. I feel like this is a great collection of talent and character, as good of a collection of people as I’ve been around in 24 years. I think this is a great group to lock arms and travel with.”

Hail Aaron.

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“There’s days where he just goes out there and doesn’t miss,” Douglas said.

Douglas has built an experienced, veteran offensive line in front of Rodgers to better protect him so he doesn’t miss.

“I’m excited to see the O-line out there,” Douglas said.

Without Reddick, Douglas will need Will McDonald to take that second-year leap that Jermaine Johnson took a year ago.

“I think Will’s had a superb camp,” Douglas said. “Will’s coming in on a mission. His skills are undeniable. I feel like can bring some elite athleticism off the edge.”

Douglas and Saleh have been a team for four seasons.

“He’s really grown into this amazing leader — he was always an amazing leader when he came in here,” Douglas said. “Just the way he can communicate with people and the energy he brings every day. He’s a great person and a great coach.”

The great person is an 18-33 coach .

Douglas is 27-56 as a GM.

Does Douglas want Reddick on the field? Of course he does. Bryce Huff and John Franklin-Myers are gone.

Reddick may not be the only one playing with fire.

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