Gase may look to Cooter to help jump-start offense
NEW YORK — the Jets have become the NFL’s laughingstock in a matter of two weeks, bumbling their way to a pair of non-competitive defeats.
Arrogance and excuse-making have become hallmarks. Stale talking points and false bluster won’t change anything, but capitulation just might.
Although there’s no panacea for this wayward organization, there might be a lifeline to stem the tide of further embarrassment.
Head coach Adam Gase should relinquish play-calling duties to running backs coach Jim Bob Cooter until further notice.
Cooter, who was Matthew Stafford’s offensive coordinator in Detroit for nearly four seasons, would provide Gase with an opportunity to take inventory of what’s gone wrong with “his” offense while devoting more time to help Sam Darnold improve without the burden of carrying the entire load.
The change could breathe life into the undisputed worst offense in professional football.
Gase’s brilliance has produced a unit that ranks 30th, 31st or 32nd in total yards, rushing yards, passing yards, first downs, yards per play and plays per game this season.
New York is drowning in the Sea of Gase entering Sunday’s road test against the Colts, sending out messages in plenty of bottles.
Cooter will never be mistaken for Andy Reid, Kyle Shanahan or Sean McVay, but his history suggests that he could provide a boost. Stafford slashed his interceptions from 64 in the four seasons before Cooter took over during the 2015 season to 44 during their time together. The quarterback’s completion percentage, yards per attempt and passer rating jumped up with Cooter.
Cooter’s offenses ranked ninth in the NFL from 2015-18 in scoring frequency (36.8% of their drives), according to jetsxfactor.com. By comparison, Gase’s offenses have ranked 25th, 29th, 29th, 32nd and 31st in points per drive.
There’s ample evidence that Gase’s system just doesn’t consistently work without a certain future Hall of Famer wearing No. 18 at the controls.
Consider: The Jets finished last in the league in points per drive last season (1.21). They’re last again in 2020 (1.36).
How awful is that?
The 2013-2014 Jaguars with Blake Bortles and Chad Henne running the show for Gus Bradley are the only team to finish last in points per drive in back-to-back seasons since it was tracked starting in 1999, per jetsxfactor.com.
That’s pretty awful.
Cooter and Gase’s paths crossed for one season in Denver when Peyton Manning, who has become a four-letter word to many Jets faithful these days, endorsed the coach because of time together with the Colts.
With all due respect to offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains, who is a sounding board and Gase confidante, Cooter is the obvious best alternative to take over the reins to give this offense a chance at survival.
It’d be unfair to expect miracles — Cooter’s offenses ranked 18th, 20th, 7th and 25th with the Lions — but, quite frankly, almost anything would be better than what we’ve seen from
Gase to this point. Not only are the raw numbers cringe-worthy, but the logic is flawed.
The Jets have had a semblance of success on the ground on first down but haven’t used that to their advantage. Gang Green has gained 5 or more yards rushing on 13 of 23 firstdown runs, according to jetsxfactor.com. The early running success sets up perfectly for play-action, but Gase has only dialed up play-action on 11 of Darnold’s 73 drop-backs, which is the second-fewest in the league.
So the Jets are 11th in yards per carry on first down (4.7) but 31st in play-action calls.
It’s enough to make your head explode if there weren’t so many other disjointed and mind-numbing trends and raw data.
Gase’s early-down failures have created unenviable third-down situations.
This result is astonishing: The Jets are the only team since the start of last season not to have a single game with a better than 45% thirddown completion rate in any game, per jetsxfactor.com.
Let that sink in.