New York Jets: Adam Gase is a poor decision for head coach

Going into more depth on the hiring of Adam Gase by the New York Jets. We talk about why it is a poor decision on many levels and should worry fans.

We reported on this last night. The New York Jets have named Adam Gase to replace Todd Bowles as the head coach.

You all saw my reactions last night. I wasn’t happy. After sleeping on it and thinking about it for a while, the answer is still the same.

This is the wrong hire.

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I will be the first to admit if I turn out to be wrong. If the Jets win 12 games per year under Gase I will sing his praises. It just doesn’t seem probable.

First there is the record with Miami, his only stop as a head coach. 23-25 is nothing to write home about.

He went to one playoff game and proceeded to lose some of the locker room by the end of his tenure.

Gase had supporters, many of whom regretted his departure. However, several anonymous players voiced some concerns.

Take a look at this example from the Miami Herald:

"Another view expressed from the locker room: Gase wasn’t as emotionally level as a head coach needed to be at times. One player said if a play-call didn’t work, he sometimes let it carry over for several minutes and was out of sorts emotionally. That player said a more level, a more even emotional approach would have been preferred."

Another opinion was that he played favorites. You were held to a different standard if you weren’t a “Gase guy”. If that’s true, that’s bad.

If players think they aren’t being treated the same as everyone else they are going to become resentful and eventually not play as hard. It’s human nature. In our own lives, we tend to not work as hard if we aren’t appreciated.

Yes, every locker room has players that aren’t happy, but chemistry does mean something.

If you look further into the circumstances the hire becomes a bit more troubling. First we have this:

It was an exhaustive process that included countless discussions, but I’m told Jets CEO Christopher Johnson took a phone call on Tuesday night from an especially impressive reference who advocated for Adam Gase:

Peyton Manning.
— Jeff Darlington (@JeffDarlington) January 10, 2019

Some might call this an ultra positive. One of the best quarterbacks of this generation endorsed this guy. Manning did throw for 55 touchdowns with Gase as the offensive coordinator in Denver.

There are two problems with that logic. The first is the fact that Manning cannot speak to whether or not Gase can coach an entire football team. He knows nothing of this because he never experienced it.

Secondly, Gase did nothing for Manning if you are being completely honest. Sure, he “called the plays”. But does Manning really have the plays called for him? Almost every one of his calls were adjustments at the line of scrimmage.

So basically all Manning could tell Christopher Johnson was that Adam Gase is a nice guy.

Along these same lines, yes Sam Darnold being happy is nice. But can we be honest about this? This is still a second year quarterback having a say in the coaching decision, even a small one. That’s really not normal, and doesn’t change Gase’s performance to date.

Then we go deeper, and as it usually does for the Jets, it gets worse.

Everyone got very high on Matt Rhule, coach from Baylor. Then just before we heard about Gase, we find out that Rhule has let everyone know he was staying at Baylor.

So what happened, changing Rhule from rising candidate to gone? Glad you asked. According to Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News, Rhule was told that general manager Mike Maccagnan and VP of Player Personnel Brian Heimerdinger were going to have a major say in Rhule’s staff.

Rhule wasn’t having it and who could blame him? The coach should hire his own staff, period. He should be allowed to bring in who he is comfortable with, no matter who it is. Unless they are a problem in society or something, everyone else should have their hands off and approve who the coach wants.

The fact that Maccagnan would make this a part of the deal is appalling. Figure out how to draft better players before you worry about picking the assistant coaches.

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Think about this. If Maccagnan pulled this with Matt Rhule, doesn’t it play that he did it with every candidate? Why would he treat one that way and not the others?

My point is that the odds are good that Adam Gase accepted those terms. He may just be allowing his front office to pick the staff, or at least have a say. That’s a scary thought. It hampers anybody’s chance to be a success, not just Gase’s.

I hope I’m wrong but this feels like a horrible decision.

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