Jets and Joe Douglas have one clear mission in 2024 NFL Draft

The dilemma is real for the Jets as they embark on Thursday night’s NFL draft first round.The Jets must break from the age-old draft mantra cliché that says to take “the best available athlete’’ when their No.10 overall pick arrives and instead chase “the best available player who can help them win now.’’The Jets have no choice but to get it right this time in the draft, because there will be no next year for general manager Joe Douglas and head coach Robert Saleh if they don’t win in 2024.What does “win’’ mean?It means, at the very least, a playoff berth.We’re going on 14 years since the last time the Jets were in the postseason, and owner Woody Johnson is growing understandably impatient.Johnson, who’s 77, is fast approaching the stage of impatience his predecessor Leon Hess reached in 1995, when he famously declared: “I’m 80 years old and I want results now’’ the day he fired Pete Carroll and hired Rich Kotite.We all know how that worked out.

Hess never got the results he sought.Johnson hopes quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who’s presumably healthy and recovered from his ruptured Achilles suffered in the season opener last year, can deliver those results he so craves.If the 40-year-old Rodgers is going to be able to do that, though, he’s going to need some more help around him on offense — and that means more skill-position talent.That means drafting one of the top receivers (Marvin Harrison Jr., Malik Nabers or Rome Odunze) or the top tight end (Brock Bowers) in the first round.Do the Jets need help on the offensive line?Absolutely they do.Don’t they always?But Douglas, who arrived here in 2019 with a reputation as an offensive line specialist, has failed spectacularly in his efforts to build a great offensive line for the better part of the five years he’s held the post.The days of building the team for the future are done for Douglas.

The only way he should take an offensive lineman in the first round is if, for some r...