New York Jets: 3 reasons to ditch Adam Gase, 3 reasons to keep him

The New York Jets chose to keep Adam Gase heading into 2020. Here are 3 reasons why that’s a mistake and 3 reasons why it makes sense.

With the conclusion of the 2019 NFL season, the New York Jets have an interesting problem on their hands.

Many people in New York, including the media, have been critical of New York Jets head coach Adam Gase. While many outside of New York did not view the team as legitimate playoff contenders, that did not stop fans and reporters from putting unfair expectations on the coach to make it there at the end of the year.

After finishing 5-11 last season and firing head coach Todd Bowles, the team placed a high emphasis on finding a coach that would handle the offense in order to further develop young quarterback Sam Darnold.

The team followed and hired Adam Gase this past offseason.

While many outside of New York would be critical of the Jets firing their head coach after one season, even after a year that saw an improvement from the previous one, moving on from Gase is still in the team’s best interests.

Before diving into why firing Gase is ultimately the right move, some of the disadvantages should be evaluated first in order to see why doing this could be so controversial in the public eye:

1. Sam Darnold would be with his third head coach in three seasons.

The early stages of a young quarterback’s career are seemingly the most important, and the decision by the team to move on from another coach in the first few years could be bad news.

Sam Darnold’s development could be jeopardized if he was forced to learn yet another new offense in just his third season in the league.

2. The team ended the year red smoking hot. 

Many people have pointed to the early season struggles as a reason Gase should be ousted. After dropping the first game to the Bills at home with a 16-0 lead in the second half, the team lost their next three games without Darnold and fell to 0-4 on the season. Although it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish. The New York Jets were 6-2 in the second half of the season, the second hottest team in football behind the 8-0 Baltimore Ravens.

3. Firing Gase after just one season could turn off potential head-coaching candidates

Perhaps the biggest disadvantage to firing Gase after one season would be missing out on hot head coaching candidates like Urban Meyer and Lincoln Riley. After seeing the way Gase was chewed alive by members of the New York media and fired after just one season, many coaches may rule out working for the team before even meeting with the owner and general manager.

Working in New York is not for everyone, but many can agree that the way the Gase has been covered by some media outlets has been utterly disrespectful and completely unprofessional. As a result, many potential head coaches will feel that just meeting with the team may not be worth their time if Adam was thrown to the curb so quickly.

Next: 3 reasons why the Jets should've moved on

Despite many of the disadvantages to firing Gase after one season, the head coach still has not done enough to warrant another chance to prove that he’s the answer to many prayers of Jets fans.

Here are some of the biggest reasons why:

1. The head coach has often looked unprepared against inferior teams

Despite having starting quarterback Sam Darnold for games against teams like the Cincinnati Bengals and the Miami Dolphins, Gase still managed to lose both games against winless teams at the time. The New York Jets became the first team in NFL history to lose to 2 winless teams that were 0-7 or worse.

Many people have pointed to these two losses alone as to reasons why the team should move on from Adam Gase. An embarrassing stain on the franchise after the team’s ninth consecutive season of missing the playoffs.

2. Gase has had trouble making in-game adjustments

In many of the games that the Jets won, the offense came out firing on all cylinders in the 1st half, but the 2nd half has been a completely different story.

On the scripted first drive, the Jets were masterful, but once they got away from the prewritten plan all hell broke loose. The team did a very poor job of adjusting to things that happened during the game and that isn’t a good sign for Adam Gase.

3. Retaining Adam Gase for another year all but ensures the Jets biggest offensive weapon will not return.

Mike Maccagnan, the Jets general manager for (some) of the 2019 offseason, signed Le’Veon Bell to a four year $52 million deal with around $25 million in guarantees.

Despite Gase reportedly not being thrilled with the move, Maccagnan signed the running back anyway. As soon as Maccagnan was fired in May, trade rumors buzzed regarding the Jets possibly pulling the trigger.

Bell, meanwhile, has maintained a professional attitude towards questions about these reports and has been a phenomenal teammate. Although there has been no public reports of any rift between Bell and Gase, the expectation of many is that if Gase returns for next season, Bell will be traded.

Despite New York finishing 7-9 and just a game or two shy of a playoff spot, much of it has nothing to do from the works of Gase. The Jets 2019 offense finished 31st in points scored, 32nd in yards per game, 29th in passing, and 31st in rushing yards. Even in the games that Darnold started, the Jets ranked 29th in total offense.

While many would laugh at the Jets for firing Adam Gase after only giving him one season, Gase is clearly not the long-term answer for this team. The only logical reason why the Jets seem to be giving Gase another shot is for the sake of stability, which isn’t a good enough reason.

However, the team seems to be ignoring many of the problems that Gase had with his time in Miami. His underwhelming four seasons in Miami along with his ineffective season on the offensive side of the ball with the Jets is enough evidence for many to realize that Gase should be fired.

In addition, it was reported that Adam didn’t get along with many of the star players while with Miami, and the same seems to be happening now in New York with Gase and Bell.

The biggest problem for Gase is that he can’t seem to get out of his own way, both with his time as Miami’s coach and now again with the Jets. It appears to be a vicious cycle of history repeating itself here with the Jets.