ADAM & LEAVE
Why Jets should bite bullet and fire Gase NOW!
Adam Gase walks off the field at MetLife Stadium after Sunday’s ugly loss to the Dolphins and there really is no point to him ever walking back on as head coach of the Jets. At 0-11, it is time for CEO Christopher Johnson to drop the ax.
WE’VE reached the “what’s-the-point?’’ phase of Adam Gase’s employment with the Jets. It’s time for the Jets to let Gase go. Today.
Some Jets fans would argue that point had long ago been reached — like weeks or months ago. Many others believe he should never have been hired in the first place based on his pedestrian past track record as a head coach. All understandable assertions. What everyone can agree on is this: It’s time for Jets CEO Christopher Johnson to do what he hasn’t wanted to do but realizes he must do, which is fire Gase.
Do it now.
This is a move Johnson should make not because he’s trying to save the season. At 0-11, the train left that station about a dozen stops ago. The season has been unsalvageable for months.
This is a move Johnson should make not because he’s seeking a spark to ignite his dead team. For fans who are concerned that an interim coach is going to turn this team into a short-term winner and ruin the Jets’ chances of securing the No. 1 overall draft pick and a chance at Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence, it should be noted that these players, who’ve shown no sign of quitting, have actually been trying to win games all along.
This is a move Johnson should not make because he has a potential replacement candidate on his current staff he’d like to audition for five games. There is no such person in the building.
This is a move
Johnson should not make to appease his fed-up fan base. Everyone knows Gase is a goner.
It’s a move Johnson should make because we’ve all seen enough.
It’s a move Johnson should make to accelerate the process — even in some minor preliminary way — of finding a new head coach. The Texans fired Bill O’Brien when they were 0-4 this season. The Falcons fired Dan Quinn when they were 0-5. This past weekend, the Lions, who are 4-7, fired Matt Patricia, who went 13-29-1 in Detroit. Those teams already are at least a step ahead of the Jets in the process of finding the next top head coach, whomever that may be.
Sure, Johnson cannot yet speak to candidates such as Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy, 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Salah, Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll or Ravens offensive coordinator Greg Roman and defensive coordinator Don Martindale because of tampering rules that prohibit such contact until after the regular season is complete. But he could get a head start on college coaches, such as Iowa State’s Matt Campbell, Oklahoma’s Lincoln Riley and Georgia offensive coordinator Todd Monken, to name a few potential candidates.
Johnson and the Jets need to move on, and the quicker they do it the more prepared they’ll be on the way to finding their next coach. Let defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, who went 5-3 as the Browns interim head coach in 2018, run the team the rest of the way. How much worse, after all, can it get for this team?
The Jets — most notably third-year quarterback Sam Darnold and the offense — have not developed (and continue to not develop) under Gase’s watch. The fact that Gase’s perceived prowess was as a dynamic offensive play-caller and a “quarterback whisperer’’ were the primary reasons he was hired in the first place should be all the damning evidence Johnson needs to put an end to this mistake.
Gase owns an unthinkable 7-20 record since he was fired by the Dolphins and hired by the Jets. The Dolphins, a team on the rise (7-4 this season) under Gase’s successor, Brian Flores, are 12-15 in that same span. Damning.
The Giants, who have been floundering since the 2016 season and on their fourth head coach since then, are a team with hope and a pulse, a team that woke up Monday morning in a tie for first place in the NFC East. Damning.
Johnson, speaking to reporters after the Jets lost their season opener to the Bills in September, curiously doubled down on comments he’d made in the past about Gase, calling him “a brilliant offensive mind,’’ adding: “I think he can work with and develop quarterbacks.”
Yet Darnold has regressed under Gase’s tutelage. He threw 17 touchdowns and 15 interceptions and averaged 220.4 passing yards per game in his rookie year. Last season, he threw 19 touchdowns and 13 interceptions and averaged 232.6 yards per game. This season, he has thrown three touchdowns and eight interceptions and has averaged just 177.4 yards in seven games.
Sunday’s moribund 20-3 loss to the Dolphins marked the fourth consecutive game that Darnold has not thrown a touchdown, the team’s longest drought since Geno Smith went five games without one in 2013. You don’t need anyone to tell you that sharing the same sentence as Geno Smith is not a good thing. Damning.
In 27 games as the Jets coach, Gase’s offense has been held to fewer than 20 points in 18 of them. Sunday was the sixth time this season the Jets have lost by 15 points or more and 12th time in Gase’s 27 games with the Jets. Damning.
What more evidence does Christopher Johnson need?
What is he waiting for?
It’s time to move on.
Today.