NY Jets: 3 reasons why Adam Gase won’t be fired during the season

NY Jets, Adam Gase Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports

The NY Jets won’t fire head coach Adam Gase during the season for these reasons.

The NY Jets are going to fire Adam Gase. That notion has been inevitable for the majority of the season now and it’s something that many saw coming since the day he was hired back in January of 2019.

There should be no conspiracy theorists out there who still believe that Gase has even a sliver of hope of returning next season. His future has been sealed for quite some time now and every loss only further hammers home that point.

However, as things currently stand, Adam Gase is the head coach of the Jets. Gase knows he’s gone, the Jets know he’s gone, the fanbase knows he’s gone. Yet for some reason, he remains the head coach.

Why? Why drag out a process that has already been preordained for months?

There is no one singular reason as to why Gase remains with the Jets’ organization. The Jets have decided that there is no need to move on from Gase during the season despite the overwhelming belief that he will be fired at the conclusion of the campaign.

January 4th, 2021 will likely be the day that Gase is ultimately let go. That’s the day after the Jets’ final game of the regular season against the New England Patriots.

Expect that to be the day that Gase and the vast majority — if not the entire — coaching staff is fired. But until then, for the next three weeks, Gase isn’t going anywhere.

Let’s take a look at three reasons this is likely the case.

Next: 3. The Jets want two full years to evaluate

NY Jets, Adam Gase Mandatory Credit: Kevin R. Wexler-USA TODAY Sports

3. The NY Jets want two full years to evaluate Adam Gase

This seems silly, of course, but it may just be the truth.

It seemed clear to most that Gase was not the right person for the job after a woeful first season with the organization. Ignore their 7-9 final record that featured wins over some of the NFL’s worst teams and focus more on their last-placed offensive ranking.

Gase was a failure in Year 1 and there were few reasons to expect improvement in Year 2. And given the team’s 0-13 record at the time of writing, it’s safe to say that “improvement” isn’t what we’ve seen.

That said, the Jets apparently seem to want two full years to evaluate not only Gase, but the remainder of the coaching staff. And that last part might be most important.

The Jets already know that Gase is a goner, but there might be a few survivors who manage to hold on to their jobs. It’s not unheard of for coaches to stick around even with the new regime taking over.

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Special teams coordinator Brant Boyer and defensive backs coach Dennard Wilson are two holdovers from the Todd Bowles era. Perhaps the Jets’ brass wants the full two years to see if anyone from Gase’s staff is worth retaining.

In that case, they probably don’t want to fire Gase if the goal is to evaluate the entire staff over a two-year period. But don’t take my word for it, take it from NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport who reported a similar thing last week.

“The season is what it is, they’re going in the direction they’re going, they would like two full years to evaluate everyone.”

The Jets are going to fire Gase, but why not just wait until the end of the year to properly evaluate the whole staff?

Next: 2. There's no one to replace him

NY Jets, Adam Gase Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports

2. The NY Jets have no viable options to replace Adam Gase

Two years ago, the Jets declined to hire highly-regarded coaching candidate Matt Rhule because they were concerned with the quality of coaches he would add to his staff.

Instead, they went with the recently-fired Adam Gase who proceeded to put together one of the least-respected coaching staffs in the entire NFL.

And the irony is that the same poor coaching staff that they allowed him to construct is one of the biggest obstacles standing in their way of firing him.

Simply put, the Jets have no viable replacement for Gase if he were to be fired. The most obvious temporary successor would have been defensive coordinator Gregg Williams who was promptly shown the door a little over a week ago.

Now, there isn’t a single coach on the staff with any experience as a full-time head coach at any level. The closest thing would be senior defensive and assistant outside linebackers coach Joe Vitt who briefly served as the interim head coach of the New Orleans Saints nearly a decade ago.

If Gase were to be hired, who takes over? New defensive coordinator Frank Bush? Assistant head coach of the offense and wide receivers coach Shawn Jefferson? Offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains?

None of the three have ever held a role higher than coordinator at any level before. Jefferson hasn’t even been a coordinator.

The Jets have one of the least experienced and respected coaching staffs in the NFL and that falls on the man who constructed it, Adam Gase.

But in an odd twist of irony, his own failure to put together a competent staff is one of the only things allowing him to remain employed.

Next: 1. What's the point?

NY Jets, Adam Gase

1. What’s the point of the NY Jets firing Adam Gase now?

You could make all the justifications for retaining Gase through the end of the season that you want, but the better question remains, why fire him? Or more specifically, what’s the point?

The Jets are going to lose with or without Gase. Do his decisions contribute to the team’s ineffectiveness any given week? Absolutely, but would things really change in a significant way if he were to be fired?

It’s hard to argue they would.

The Jets clearly don’t feel a need to fire Gase with just three games remaining in the season. Just as they didn’t feel a need to fire him with five or seven or nine games remaining.

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The results just won’t be worth the trouble.

If anything, Gase’s weekly ineptitude aids the Jets in their quest for the No. 1 overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft. Now, is that the mindset shared by the Jets’ front office and ownership? Possibly, but it’s impossible to say.

But what is clear is that they’re in no rush to fire Gase simply because they don’t believe his firing with have a significant impact on anything. It’s all moot at this point, just as the firing of Gregg Williams was.

Rapoport commented on this aspect of the situation as well stating the following.

“What would be the point of firing everyone now? Does firing someone like Adam Gase really get you anything right now? Probably not.”

It’s silly to continue to trot out a lame-duck coach who everyone knows will be fired before long every single week. But in a month from now, none of this is going to matter.

These final few weeks will have essentially no bearing on the future of the Jets’ organization — aside from where they land in the draft order, of course.

In a way, there’s something liberating about that. Nothing matters, so why care?

Gase isn’t still here because ownership believes he’s doing a good job or because he might stick around next year. He’s simply here because there’s no real reason to fire him during the season.

What’s the point?