FLORHAM PARK — Jets general manager Joe Douglas could have viewed it as an insult or an ominous sign from his boss.

Before Sunday’s loss in Jacksonville, CEO Christopher Johnson stood on the field and greeted a few Jets fans in the stands who had traveled to the game.

“Hopefully the team will actually show up this week,” Johnson said, a fan capturing it on video and later sharing it to social media for all to see after the Jets fell to 1-6 continuing their miserable start.

But when Douglas heard what Johnson said, he wasn’t bothered. He actually felt like he could relate.

“My take was he seemed like a person that was like a lot of people in this building: passionate and frustrated about where we are at, 1-6,” Douglas said. “And I can tell you that my feelings on Christopher have not changed one bit. Frankly, he deserves better than 1-6 and we’re going to do everything we can to do make sure that we’re not in this position again in the future.”

The Jets, in their first season with Douglas and new coach Adam Gase, are in a horrible spot.

This is the franchise’s slowest start since 2014 when they began the year 1-8. Quarterback Sam Darnold, the key to the future of the franchise, just played the two worst games of his career in a seven-day span, and the offense has fewer touchdowns than any other team in the NFL.

It’s so bad that many Jets fans want the plug pulled on Gase before the midpoint of his first season.

But through it all, Gase and Douglas have not lost faith in themselves.

Gase was asked Tuesday if the early results have led to any self-doubt.

“No. Never,” Gase said Tuesday on ESPN New York’s “The Michael Kay Show.”

And Douglas, who defended Gase as a “great coach and a great communicator,” said he’s certain that he and Gase can get this franchise turned around, despite the incredibly rocky start.

“I have no doubts,” Douglas said. “I think there [are] some unforeseen circumstances that happened.”

It’s true, the Jets have had some weird, unfortunate things happen: Like Darnold coming down with mononucleosis at the beginning of his critical second season, or C.J. Mosley, who missed only three games in the first five years of his career, suffering a groin injury that will likely keep him out of at least 10 games in his first season with the Jets.

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Losing key players like receiver Quincy Enunwa, backup quarterback Trevor Siemian and inside linebacker Avery Williamson for the season hasn’t helped either.

But the Jets aren’t the only team suffering through bad breaks.

“I think every team goes through those though and so I don't want to make that an excuse,” Douglas said. “I think we have been through some rough patches early. I can promise that the leadership group of this team is mentally and psychologically tough enough to get through this and can handle adversity and persevere.”

That's a big promise because so many before Douglas have come and gone without breaking the cycle. The Jets haven’t made it to the Super Bowl in 51 years. They’re about to miss the playoffs for the ninth straight season, the second-worst drought in franchise history. And they’ve been particularly bad since Johnson took over, losing 29 of their last 39 games.

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Douglas says he already sees signs that things are headed in the right direction, even if the results haven’t shown up on the field yet. He disputed the notion that the team has been non-competitive, despite losing five games by 14 points or more this season.

“I think some of the scores on the scoreboard [are] not ideal, but this team does not lack competitiveness,” Douglas said. “I see it every day at practice, these guys fly around, they practice hard, they care, they love ball. I think we need to execute better play in, play out. I think we need to stack plays together. Then stack drives together, then stack quarters together, then halves, then games and then go on a run. Right now, the scoreboard might say that we're noncompetitive, but we are far from that.”

Still, this is a results-based business. And with the Jets losing 15 of their last 17 games, no one is going to be happy unless they find a way to stack some wins in the final nine games of the season — not the fans, not the players, not the owner, and not Douglas.

“No one is more frustrated than me,” Douglas said. “I see the frustration on a daily basis, I see it from the fans after the game, I see it from the people in this building. I can promise you that we come to work every day and there are a lot of people that just have a relentless work ethic and they are here every day, scratching, clawing, trying to figure out ways to make this team better. … I can promise you that we are doing everything in our power to make sure that we don't have a start like this again.

“We just have to do everything better and that starts with me.”

Andy Vasquez is the Jets beat writer for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to all Jets analysis, news, trades and more, please subscribe today and download our app.

Email: vasqueza@northjersey.com Twitter: @andy_vasquez