New York Post, Tuesday, December 1, 2020
nypost.com
W
E’vE reached the “what’s-the-
point?’’ phase of Adam Gase’s
employment with the Jets.
It’s time for the Jets to let Gase go.
Today.
Some Jets fans would argue that
point had long ago been reached — like
weeks or months ago. Many others be-
lieve he should never have been hired
in the first place based on his pedes-
trian past track record as a head coach.
All understandable assertions.
What everyone can agree on is this:
It’s time for Jets CEO Christopher
Johnson to do what he hasn’t wanted
to do but realizes he must do, which is
fire Gase.
Do it now.
This is a move Johnson should
make not because he’s trying to save
the season. At 0-11, the train left that
station about a dozen stops ago. The
season has been unsalvageable for
months.
This is a move Johnson should make
not because he’s seeking a spark to ig-
nite his dead team. For fans who are
concerned that an interim coach is go-
ing to turn this team into a short-term
winner and ruin the Jets’ chances of se-
curing the No. 1 overall draft pick and a
chance at Clemson quarterback Trevor
Lawrence, it should be noted that these
players, who’ve shown no sign of quit-
ting, have actually been trying to win
games all along.
This is a move Johnson
should not make because he
has a potential replacement
candidate on his current staff
he’d like to audition for five
games. There is no such
person in the building.
This is a move
Johnson should not
make to appease his
fed-up fan base. Ev-
eryone knows Gase
is a goner.
It’s a move John-
son should make
because we’ve all
seen enough.
It’s a move John-
son should make to
accelerate the pro-
cess — even in some
minor preliminaryway — of finding a new head coach.
The Texans fired Bill O’Brien when
they were 0-4 this season. The Fal-
cons fired Dan Quinn when they
were 0-5. This past weekend, the Li-
ons, who are 4-7, fired Matt Patricia,
who went 13-29-1 in Detroit.
Those teams already are at least a
step ahead of the Jets in the process of
finding the next top head coach,
whomever that may be.
Sure, Johnson cannot yet speak to
candidates such as Chiefs offensive
coordinator Eric Bieniemy, 49ers de-
fensive coordinator Robert Salah, Bills
offensive coordinator Brian Daboll or
Ravens offensive coordinator Greg
Roman and defensive coordinator
Don Martindale because of tampering
rules that prohibit such contact until
after the regular season is complete.
But he could get a head start on col-
lege coaches, such as Iowa State’s
Matt Campbell, Oklahoma’s Lincoln
Riley and Georgia offensive coordina-
tor Todd Monken, to name a few po-
tential candidates.
Johnson and the Jets need to move
on, and the quicker they do it the
more prepared they’ll be on the
way to finding their next coach.
Let defensive coordinator Gregg
Williams, who went 5-3 as the Browns
interim head coach in 2018, run
the team the rest of the way. How
much worse, after all, can it get
for this team?
The Jets — most notably
third-year quarterback Sam
Darnold and the offense —
have not developed (and
continue to not develop)
under Gase’s watch.
The fact that Gase’s
perceived prowess was
as a dynamic offensive
play-caller and a “quar-
terback whisperer’’
were the primary reasons hewas hired in the first place should be all
the damning evidence Johnson needs to
put an end to this mistake.
Gase owns an unthinkable 7-20
record since he was fired by the Dol-
phins and hired by the Jets. The Dol-
phins, a team on the rise (7-4 this sea-
son) under Gase’s successor, Brian
Flores, are 12-15 in that same span.
Damning.
The Giants, who have been floun-
dering since the 2016 season and on
their fourth head coach since then,
are a team with hope and a pulse, a
team that woke up Monday morning
in a tie for first place in the NFC East.
Damning.
Johnson, speaking to reporters after
the Jets lost their season opener to the
Bills in September, curiously doubled
down on comments he’d made in the
past about Gase, calling him “a brilliant
offensive mind,’’ adding: “I think he can
work with and develop quarterbacks.”
Yet Darnold has regressed under
Gase’s tutelage. He threw 17 touch-
downs and 15 interceptions and aver-
aged 220.4 passing yards per game in
his rookie year. Last season, he threw
19 touchdowns and 13 interceptions
and averaged 232.6 yards per game.
This season, he has thrown three
touchdowns and eight interceptions
and has averaged just 177.4 yards in
seven games.
Sunday’s moribund 20-3 loss to the
Dolphins marked the fourth consecu-
tive game that Darnold has not
thrown a touchdown, the team’s long-
est drought since Geno Smith went
five games without one in 2013. You
don’t need anyone to tell you that
sharing the same sentence as Geno
Smith is not a good thing.
Damning.
In 27 games as the Jets coach, Gase’s
offense has been held to fewer than 20
points in 18 of them. Sunday was the
sixth time this season the Jets have
lost by 15 points or more and 12th time
in Gase’s 27 games with the Jets.
Damning.
What more evidence does Christo-
pher Johnson need?
What is he waiting for?
It’s time to move on.
Today.
[email protected]Mark CannizzaroMark Cannizzaro