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Ian Rapoport made a major announcement on Thursday morning.
“Heading into tonight’s matchup against the Denver Broncos on the NFL Network, it does not appear Gase’s job hangs in the balance pending the result of the game,” Rapoport announced. “According to those informed of the decision-making, the thinking is that firing Gase would not only be counterproductive in general, but also potentially damaging to quarterback Sam Darnold.”
This flies in the face of what Chris Mortensen reported on Sunday.
“Jets coach Adam Gase is under more intense scrutiny this week and it’s not just the external noise from media or fans. League sources say even w/ injuries, Jets’ brass monitoring this week closely, today vs. Colts but perhaps more telling is TNF vs. Broncos. Interesting watch,” Mortensen tweeted Sunday morning.
To me, the first thing that popped into my mind about the Rapoport announcement is that it came from spin person, not a football person.
And secondly, whether it was hiring this coach, or even now, in not considering a change, they are too caught up in one person – Sam Darnold – when making head coaching decisions.
To keep making decisions so focused on one player, is not how you make coaching decisions. A big reason Gase was hired was because of Darnold.
If you fired Gase, why couldn’t you get Dowell Loggains or Jim Bob Cooter to run the same offense the rest of the year if you are so concerned with Darnold.
And then Darnold gets hurt in this game, bruising his shoulder after holding the ball too long (he had 4.89 seconds to throw on the play) and getting throw to the ground by linebacker Alexander Johnson. And the second he’s cleared to come back, they have to rush Joe Flacco off the field, like he’s some kind of slappy.
“Oh my goodness, we need to get Sam out there as soon as possible, we can possible live another play with Flacco – oh the humanity.” That is how it looked.
Darnold is so inconsistent, it’s far hard to sustain touchdown drives. Why do you think they need to settle for so many field goals. One good play, too bad ones, one good play, two bad ones, one good play, three bad.
On that field goal drive at the end of the half, Darnold was just chucking to areas where there were receivers, like it was a high school game – just throw to a covered guy and see it he can catch it. First to Kalen Ballage on the left sideline, and then a couple of chucks to Chris Hogan around the goal line who wasn’t close to open on either play.
Then on that first drive of the second half, on third down in the red zone, he chucks it to Frank Gore down the right side around the goal line, who wasn’t open, blanket coverage, and the pass went past him by five yards anyway, so they kick a field goal.
And then the two-point conversion after the Pierre Desir pick – not a chance – bootleg right and throw away.
It’s time to stop chucking and start playing quarterback, NFL-style.
The attitude of this organization toward their quarterback isn’t healthy.
First, a spin person claims that the coach isn’t in trouble because of what it might do to Sam.
And then, they have to rush him back in the game, after getting hurt on a foolish play, and rush Flacco, a Super Bowl winning QB, out of the lineup.
It’s turning into a Sam Darnold cult at One Jets Drive.
How about forgetting Darnold for a second in evaluating this coach, and consider how many penalties the Jets committed in this game. How about judging the head coach by that, and stop making everything so darn Darnold-centric.
There are the New York Jets, not the New York Darnolds.
If you want to keep Gase, that is your choice, but stop making everything about one player.
This is football.
The ultimate team sport.
It’s time to grow up.
And too deal with reality about your quarterback, who excels at street-yard ball, like scrambling and making throws on broken plays, but needs work on winning from the pocket.
October 1, 2020