Adam

Gase

Cool. Gase took a five-year hiatus from coaching after a failed two-year stint with the Jets (2019 to 2020), which came after a failed head coaching stint with the Dolphins (2016 to 2018). The 47-year-old coach will now get a chance to work with Justin Herbert in his new role, in hopes of rebuilding his image. It’s hard to imagine Gase ever getting another head coaching job, but it will be interesting to see if he can again rise through the ranks after one of the more forgettable five-year stretches for any coach.

Gase has not coached since his 2019-2020 run as the Jets’ head coach. He served as the Dolphins’ head coach before that, from 2016-2018. The Chargers swapped out former OC Greg Roman for new OC Mike McDaniel this offseason, and are evidently not done adding new offensive staffers.

The guy whose offense was dead last -- or near dead last -- in every meaningful category as head coach of the Jets is apparently in the running to replace Josh McDaniels as New England’s offensive coordinator. Giardi said there remains hope that the next Patriots OC will come from within the organization, but Gase is a possible outside hire who could inexplicably get another chance to sink an NFL offense. A master of alienating players and creating stale, predictable offensive schemes, Gase would be a curious choice for Bill Belichick and the Pats. His hiring would raise serious questions about the development of Mac Jones as a franchise quarterback.

“I don’t consider a ‘HB dive’ on third and short EVERY TIME an opportunity,” Bell said on Twitter. “We line up, they call out the play, that’s not opportunity, on top of the play being a dive. I can’t make [stuff] shake with that.” Bell blames the Jets’ playcalling for his decline the last two seasons. It’s not the first time a Jets player has called out Gase, who benched LG Alex Lewis for the final six games of 2020 over similar comments and was criticized by ex-safety Jamal Adams. Bell didn’t find much success after his New York release, where he mostly served as a backup in his 12 game run with the Chiefs. The 29-year-old expects to sign with a team before the start of the season.

The front office will also speak with Chiefs QBs coach Mike Kafka as it continues casting a wide net to fill its OC role. The Jets gained the fewest yards in football in each of Gase’s years on the job with the Jets, but Seattle’s continuous journey to make life as hard as possible for Russell Wilson usurps any other approach. It would obviously be an unmitigated disaster for the Seahawks both on the field on offense and in the locker room with S Jamal Adams if Gase is hired.

This is not parody. Saban has made a habit of reviving tarnished careers, with the latest being ex-USC coach Steve Sarkisian. He also resuscitated Lane Kiffin. Gase has a Saban connection, working as a graduate assistant under Saban at LSU. He apparently first connected with Saban when he was a student and Saban was the coach at Michigan State. Landing in Tuscaloosa would be a top one percentile outcome for Gase after the dumpster fire that was his two years in New York. As for O’Brien, we would imagine he thinks bigger, but this might be as big as it gets for him this offseason.

And so ends the biggest coaching fiasco in recent memory. The Jets went 9-23 in two years on Gase’s watch by the grace of a pointless 6-2 2019 finish after the squad knocked itself out of playoff contention with a 1-7 start. The Jets gained the fewest yards in football each of Gase’s years on the job in the Big Apple, becoming a laughingstock of truly epic proportions this season by starting 0-13 only to knock themselves out of contention for Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence at No. 1 overall with a 2-1 finish that nobody, least of all Jets fans, wanted. Unable or unwilling to adjust or modernize his offense — the Jets have been where pre-snap motion and play-action go to die — Gase was as out of his depth as a play-caller as he was a locker room leader. As was the case in Miami, Jets players made zero progress under Gase only to improve as soon as they ended up elsewhere. Although he’s only 42, Gase is going to have trouble finding NFL coordinator work after this historically-bad stint.

The Jets would be the laughing stock of all American sports if Gase kept his job even after stacking up two upset wins to close the season. Gase’s tenure has led to few wins and many headaches with players. The Jets head coaching job has its pros -- cap space and draft capital -- but the Jets’ ownership has a long track record of sloppy decision making. Pelissero and Rapoport report the Jets’ head coach search will include NFL coordinators and college head coaches. Jets GM Joe Douglas “isn’t going anywhere”.

That would entail the Jets being competitive to begin with. New York has teetered between play-callers since Week 7, exceeding 25 points in back-to-back games with Joe Flacco under center and totaling a lowly 22 points in Sam Darnold’s three starts in that time. Averaging the league’s fewest yards per play (4.6), points per game (13.8), and lowest scoring margin (-15.5) on gamedays, anything Gase claims at this point is strictly headline material for comedic purposes. Maybe Trevor Lawrence and a new head coach will change the organization’s culture in 2021.

Gase gave up the gig to OC Dowell Loggains ahead of the team’s Week 7 game against the Bills. The Jets were held under ten points in consecutive games following the change. They did manage to top 25 points in the next two games but both of those games came with Joe Flacco under center. Now that Sam Darnold is starting once again, playcalling may not be the team’s biggest problem.