TOO MUCH GORE FOR GANG
Gase’s infatuation with vet comes
Frank Gore is a legend and by all accounts a good man, beloved everywhere he goes in the NFL. No one is more infatuated with the future Hall of Fame running back, however, than Jets head coach Adam Gase, who has simply been blinded by his admiration for Gore.
The Jets have two promising, largely untested running backs in Ty Johnson and Josh Adams. In the one game where Gore left after the second play, they combined with Sam Darnold to run for 204 yards on 33 carries. Gore’s season high is 74 yards; he’s averaging a paltry 3.6 yards per carry on the season.
Yet, whether it’s Le’Veon Bell, La’Mical Perine, or Johnson and Adams behind him, the 37-year-old Gore is the Jets’ primary running back. Gore has received the most carries in every game that he finished except for one. The one game he missed was the one game where the running attack was remotely effective; he was slotted back into the top of the rotation the next week for a 40-3 loss.
Gase’s love — it really can only be called that — for Gore dates back to when Ty Johnson was in middle school. As a 49ers assistant in 2009, Gase promised Gore that wherever he got a head coaching job, he’d sign him, according to ESPN. The two joined for Gase’s final Miami season in 2018, and now for what is likely Gase’s final New York season.
All season, reporters have asked Gase: Why play Gore? He’s largely ineffective, and the team has cut or benched veterans across the rest of the roster.
In his 16th NFL season, Gore has somehow racked up 150 carries, with an outside chance at 200 and on pace for his most since 2017. He ranks 18th in the NFL in rushing attempts. No one ahead of him is within a decade of his age. (At 42, Gase is closer in age to Gore than Gore is to most players in the NFL.)
I went through the transcripts of Gase’s press conferences this year to find each of his explanations for why Gore is playing so much. I certainly may have missed some, but here they are in bold and reverse chronological order.
DECEMBER 14
Gase had just put Gore back in as the primary running back for the Seahawks blowout, giving him the most carries while the game was still competitive. Johnson and Gore had eight carries each, but most of Johnson’s carries came in garbage time.
[b]”I mean, yeah, we had our best rushing game against Las Vegas,” Gase said. “I mean there’s a reason behind that, just kind of the way they were playing, I think young guys did a good job of taking what was given to them and how it was blocked. ... And, you know, we have some good runs there early and it just kind of flattened out for us. ... When (La’Mical) Perine comes back, we might change the way that we’re doing things, but you know as for right now, we’re trying to give all those guys touches, that’s the decision that we’ve decided to make.”[/b]
DECEMBER 10
Johnson had just become the Jets’ only 100-yard rusher since 2018, in a game where Gore left with a head injury. Adams had also tied Gore’s season-high 74 yards — on just eight carries.
“I’d love for us to get all three of those guys involved,” Gase said. “I wish it was really easy and I could say, ‘Hey,
I’ll map it out like this,’ and I can tell these guys here’s how it we’ll play it out. The game just doesn’t always go the way you want. But yeah, obviously I’d love all those guys to touch the ball, see who can get hot and roll like that.”
DECEMBER 3
Coming out of the Jets’ bye, Gore had 15 and then 18 carries to losses to the Chargers and Dolphins.
“I mean the flow of the game is really kind of, you know, it doesn’t always go as smooth as you want,” Gase said. “I think with the amount of games we got left, I feel good about it. I mean watching (Gore) practice I mean, you can’t tell.”
NOVEMBER 27
La’Mical Perine had just been put on injured reserve. “We’re going to try to get all those guys involved,” Gase said. “Obviously, you don’t want Frank taking 30 touches. We’ll rotate all those guys in there. It’s all about the flow of the game, it’s all about the play count and how is each series going. ... (Johnson’s) speed is real, you feel it... The more touches we can give him, the more chances we can get him to see if he can hit a home run, I think that’s something that we’ve just got to keep working through here the next six weeks trying to get him really going in that aspect.”[/b]
This was two days before the Dolphins game, where Gore got 18 carries and Johnson got two.
NOVEMBER 18
“I think Frank, he’s probably playing at one of the higher levels of anybody we have right now,” Gase said. “At the running back spot, it’s just all about how many plays we have in a game. It’s what you envision pregame, before
we go into this thing, and then how the game goes, that’s why sometimes the reps look the way they are. We didn’t anticipate having an 11-play drive, one-play drive and then we’re in two-minute. That wasn’t something we anticipated having that few of plays in the second half. I always see (La’Mical) Perine having more reps and Frank having valuable reps and touches throughout the game... I think this last game they were about even. We’d love to get Perine some more touches though.”
This was four days before the Chargers game. Gore had 15 carries and Perine 8.
OCTOBER 29
“I was surprised how few reps Frank actually had,” Gase said. “It felt like it was more than what he had in the game, but I was great with that and I’d love to get Ty (Johnson) involved as well. Both those guys, the speed is real, you feel it. You saw it in the Miami game with Ty. So, seeing Perine being able to get a couple of those explosive plays this last game, it’s exciting to see what that group can do.”
This was coming off the 18-10 Bills loss, where Gore and Perine each got 18 carries. Gore led the Jets in carries again the next week against the Chiefs, running 10 times for 30 yards. Perine had eight carries and Johnson two in that game.
OCTOBER 21
“Let’s see if some of these young guys can make some explosive plays,” Gase said. “If you look at the reps that they had, I think Perine had like 42 snaps or something like that, Frank had 25. I wanted to get Ty (Johnson) in there sooner. We had specific packages for him, and we were down 21-0
and just trying to fight, like, ‘Hey, do I stay in this grouping? Do I get them in there?’ We got to it in the second half, he rips off two long runs even though we didn’t block the mike on one of them. So, it just shows, sometimes speed just overcomes any kind of mistake.”
This was coming off the Miami shutout loss, where Gore ran the ball 11 times, more than Perine (seven) and Johnson (three) combined.
OCTOBER 14
“Perine is definitely going to get a bigger role,” Gase said. “Frank, you’re not going to lean on him as heavy a load because of where he’s at in his career. He knows exactly how many touches is the right amount for him. I feel like we have a really good idea how many touches is the right amount for him, but getting Perine really involved is going to be critical for us. And then having two younger guys behind, with Ty (Johnson) and Josh Adams available, we’ll get all these guys going.”
This was coming off the 30-10 loss to Arizona, the only exception this season. Le’Veon Bell had received 13 carries to Gore’s nine. That would be the only game where a healthy Gore did not lead the team in carries.
OCTOBER 12
“I think I’m considering everything,” Gase said. “I’m just looking at everything and just trying to figure out whatever can help us turn things in the right direction, I mean, I’ll be all for it. ... If that means Perine has more carries, then we’ll do that. We just want to want to make sure that he’s put in a good position where he can grow, you just don’t want to put too much on his plate too fast and kind of really stunt his growth at all.”