To help Gase, it’s all WRs on deck

Darnold excels with full complement of receivers

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — Adam Gase has one more trick up his sleeve to persuade the powers that be he’s still the right man for the job.

Although much of the rest of the football world has turned the page on Gase’s fate, the Jets head coach has a plan he believes gives him the best opportunity to stick around beyond this season.

If Sam Darnold lights it up with his full complement of pass catchers over the final six games, could Gase sway the Johnson brothers to keep him?

Sure, it’s a Hail Mary, but it’s Gase’s best hope.

Darnold, who has missed four of the past six games with a shoulder injury, is expected to start against the Dolphins. It will be the first time the third-year signal caller will play with his top three wide receivers. Jamison Crowder, Denzel Mims and Breshad Perriman missed different portions of the first half of the season with an assortment of injuries.

So, Gase could present a case to ownership and general manager Joe Douglas, who will have a significant say in Gase’s future even though the coach doesn’t technically report to him, that his offense never had a chance to get off the ground until now.

A strong showing down the stretch from the Jets offense, which has scored half of their 14 offensive touchdowns in the past two games, could be a life raft for the head coach.

Gase’s offense ranks dead last in scoring, total yards, passing, first downs, yards per play, red zone efficiency and touchdowns. The Jets have been non-competitive for much of a miserable season. New York isn’t off to its first 0-10 start in the 61-year history of the franchise by accident.

There are myriad reasons why the Jets are this bad. Gase might not be the only culprit for the litany of failings, but he’s ultimately accountable for the overall lack of production.

The Jets, who have won a grand total of one game since last Christmas (against the Bills’ JV squad on Week 17 last season), need to reverse course in a hurry for Gase to stand a chance of having a reasonable case to make.

Gase made it clear this week what he hopes to see the rest of the way from Darnold, who was rushed back after initially getting hurt in Week 4.

“I’d like to see him play with our starting wide receivers,” Gase said. “That would be probably my No. 1 thing I’d love to see.”

Gase’s future has always been tethered to Darnold’s success.

He was hired to develop a young quarterback who was trending up by the end of his rookie season. Darnold had an uneven first season with Gase that included marginal improvement in some areas. The signal-caller has taken a clear step backward with Gase in 2020, prompting fair questions about whether he needs a better teacher.

Whether or not Darnold, who has missed 10 games in his career due to injury and illness, can stay heathy through the rest of the season is unknown. His shoulder injury could flare up if he gets hit or lands hard on the turf. So, it’ll be incumbent upon Gase, who has shared play-calling duties with offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains for the past several weeks, not to put Darnold in harm’s way as best as he can.

“We can help with some of the things that we do as a coaching staff,” Gase said about how scheme can help protect Darnold. “Just making sure let’s not run like lead draw with him. Maybe we can avoid some of those type of things, but I think at the same time we’ve got to let him play the way he’s accustomed to playing.”

“His biggest thing to protect himself is when he gets in those positions outside the pocket,” Gase continued, “It might be a throw-away instead of trying to do something crazy and extend the play to a point of he’s putting him into harm’s way. I think there are some things that he can do to protect himself, but at the same time where he doesn’t completely take away from the way that he plays.”

Gase obviously wants to avoid a 0-16 season no matter how much a segment of the fanbase wishes to lose out to land Lawrence.