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A few different things to get into today
WFAN’s Craig Carton reported that Christopher Johnson has informed Adam Gase he will be fired at the end of the season.
Gase said he hasn’t been told and that story was “news to me.”
Is the report accurate?
Well first of all, if it was, there is no way Gase would admit to it in a press conference.
Secondly, some might have a hard time going with a story from that particular radio personality, who unfortunately had to go to jail for a ponzi scheme.
But second-chances and forgiveness are important in life.
But obviously there is a very good chance that Gase will be fired after the Jets-Patriots game, but why would Johnson tell him he’s going to be fired when he still has game(s) to coach. If you do that, you might as well fire him right now, and go with an interim coach. And Johnson doesn’t like to make these decisions until the season is over . . .
Another big story today was Gase falling on the sword again for the struggles of the Jets’ offense, which is poised to finish 32nd in the league, just like last year.
“It pisses me off. If there’s one side of the ball I want to make sure is right, it would be that one,” Gase said. “It has not happened, and that’s on me.”
A couple of things to get into here.
First of all, the issues with the Jets’ are a combination of Gase and Sam Darnold, not just the coach,
Now Gase isn’t going to blame the QB publicly, but the QB’s issues reading defenses and going through progressions have certainly contributed to the Jets’ offensive woes.
VSIN’s Mike Lombardi was talking today about Pittsburgh QB Mason Rudolph, and said, “He is a guy like Dwayne Haskins, much like Jacoby Brissett, they need to see the receiver open before they make the throw.”
Darnold is kind in that category as well.
Look, Darnold gave it his best shot, but reading defenses is wicked hard, as they would say in New England.
There is no way I could ever do it, that’s for sure.
Is Gase the best play-caller? No, but he can’t go out on the field and physically make Sam turn his head and look at his second and third reads.
The bigger issue with Gase as a head coach can actually be found in the same quote.
“If there’s one side of the ball I want to make sure is right, it would be that one,” Gase said.
That’s a problem. The head should “want to make sure” that all three areas are “right” – offense, defense and special teams.
This should be a teachable moment for the Jets’ brass. When picking the next coach, they need to hire a guy who’s going to lord over the entire football team, not just one side of the ball . . .
We (the media) haven’t been able to watch the half-hour of practice open to the press for the last couple of weeks. The weather was a factor. When they practice inside, in their field house, the media can’t attend, due to COVID-19.
It was expected we would be able to watch today, but it was a no-go again.
Gase said it was just going to be a walkthrough today to take it easy on the player’s bodies.
But having practicing/walk-throughs inside is something I don’t totally get, when you are often playing on game day in tough winter weather. They are playing in New England on Sunday in early January.
To me, you go outside, but the head coach clearly doesn’t see it that way. Different strokes for different folks . . .
Running back La’Mical Perine won’t play his week after testing positive for COVID-19. So now with Frank Gore (bruised lung) and Perine out, two running backs, who’ve played well when given a chance, but have been victimized by politics – Ty Johnson and Josh Adams – will platoon (unless they are ruled to have a contact tracing with Perine), and make a case to have roles next year. Roster politics can’t get in the way this week.
December 30, 2020
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