Did Joe Douglas hint about some of his early priorities in an interview with Albert Breer?

Albert Breer has a fairly expansive interview with Jets general manager Joe Douglas in his Monday Morning Quarterback column today.

A lot of the interview focuses on Douglas’ family life. There are also a lot of typical new general manager quotes about the team’s owner, coach, and roster being great to work with.

One particular comment did catch my attention a bit.

There are some pretty valuable lessons he’s taking from the infancy of Roseman’s reemergence atop the Philly football operation, and that’s how important it is to bring the building back together after a tumultuous couple years. Within a couple months, the Eagles extended veterans Zach Ertz, Lane Johnson, Vinny Curry and Malcolm Jenkins. And that summer, they got star DT Fletcher Cox done too.

“[Roseman] knew the building was fractured,” Douglas said. “He knew that the players needed a safe harbor. And he wanted to send a message to the homegrown players that if you do right, you’re going to be cared for—we’re not going to throw the baby out with the bathwater. And I think that went a long way.”

In part because the Jets have been so unsuccessful on the field over the last few years, they have been able to amass a young core of top ten picks. Most of those players are too early in their career to be eligible for extensions, but one might wonder whether Douglas is tipping his hand a bit about making it a priority to extend players.

It should be noted that Douglas made a note to praise two young players who are eligible for long-term deals, Leonard Williams (part of that core of top ten picks) and Robby Anderson (the rare Mike Maccagnan find outside the top ten).

We will have to wait and see whether Douglas makes this type of statement early in his administration.