Darnold all in on Gase
Adam Gase’s message to Sam Darnold after he became the new Jets head coach was simple and pure: Let’s get after it and have some fun.
Gase will have the enormous responsibility of developing Darnold, who had flashes of brilliance in his rookie season.
The promising quarterback is all-in with his new coach.
“I couldn’t be more excited about this, to be honest with you,” Darnold told the Daily News Thursday. “I’m really pumped about this opportunity to be with Coach Gase. With his mind and ability to lead a team. He’s a good dude. The excitement and the passion that he has for the game is very contagious. I think that will rub off on a lot of the guys. I’m super pumped about this whole thing and couldn’t be more stoked for the opportunity.”
Darnold and Gase spoke via phone during the hiring process before touching base after Christopher Johnson and Mike Maccagnan pegged the former Dolphins head coach to take over. Gase, who is expected to be formally introduced on Friday, has the goods to unlock Darnold’s gifts.
The coach’s passion should bring out the best in Darnold, who gave everyone a window into his future with a terrific final month of his first season.
“He’s very fiery,” Darnold said of Gase. “I love that about him. I love the passion that he brings. At the same time, I’m going to be me. He’ll just bring a certain attitude to this team that we need. I’m really looking forward to hearing his ideas and what he thinks might work best, what he thinks I do well, what we want to utilize in terms of running an offense. I’m really looking forward to some of the conversations that I have with him about that.”
Gang Green’s search was centered on finding the right person to help take Darnold, who spoke to some candidates during the process, to the next level.
The Jets made a smart choice with Gase, who has done good work with quarterbacks in his career. Whether it was re-designing the Broncos offense on the fly to accentuate Tim Tebow’s strengths during a 2011 playoff run or helping the typically erratic Jay Cutler have his most efficient season as a pro, Gase knows what he’s doing. Gase helped Peyton Manning’s late-career renaissance that produced a record-breaking offense that buoyed the Broncos to the Super Bowl.
“Coach Gase has done amazing things not with just quarterbacks, but offenses in general,” Darnold said. “I think we can take this a long way. There’s a lot to be excited about. There’s a lot of points that are going to be scored. It’s about meshing together as a team and seeing Coach Gase being able to see some of the weapons that we have and how he can use them. For me, it’s just about delivering the ball on time and with accuracy.”
“He’s also a great quarterback teacher,” Darnold continued. “You look at the past. He was a huge part of Peyton Manning’s success in Denver when Peyton broke all those records. So, I’m really looking forward to working with him and seeing the creativity that he has for offense.”
Darnold, who finished with 17 touchdowns and 15 interceptions in 13 games, believes that Gase will inject life into Gang Green’s offense.
“The reason that I’m so pumped is that I know — and I’m confident — that we’re going to score a lot of points,” Darnold said. “And at the end of the day, that’s how you win games. Obviously, people say offense wins games, defenses win championships. But I think at the end of the day, if you score more points than the other team, you’re going to win.”
“I know we’re going to be great defensively,” Darnold continued. “We have pieces on defense that are going to be able to stop the run and stop them from going over the top. So as long as we do that and score more points, we’ll be all right.”
Darnold is all-in with a guy that he thinks will propel the Jets during this critical juncture.
“His mind for football and offense in general is amazing,” Darnold said. “I still have a lot to learn. . I felt like I learned a ton and I feel I’m just going to continue to grow especially with Adam.. I have the utmost confidence in myself to be able to grow as a player. I have the utmost confidence in this team to be able to grow as a unit and to see how far we can take this thing.”
“It’s going to be really fun,” Darnold added. “There’s a lot of room for our team to grow, which is a good thing. There’s a lot of opportunity to be had. We have a lot of weapons that we’re going to be able to utilize. It’ll be really fun to be able to utilize them in ways that people not have really seen before. I think that’s something to look forward to if you’re a Jets fan.”
Darnold sees something great on the horizon with his new coach.