Historical precedent

Its their modus operandi

The Johnson Brothers clearly don’t believe in making coaching changes during the season.

They clearly have a template for how to run their team that they prefer to stick to, like the GM and head coach being equals and reporting to the owner.

But getting back to the coaching situation.

Whether it was Herm Edwards, Eric Mangini, Rex Ryan or Todd Bowles, all those coaches were fired after the season.

Some people, perhaps naively, thought the current coach, Adam Gase, was going to be fired today, after another embarrassing Jets blowout loss, this time to the Miami Dolphins, 24-0.

The Jets are a mess right now from a strategic and execution standpoint. I don’t think it’s effort.

But it looks like Christopher Johnson, the acting owner, isn’t looking to fire Gase mid-season.

Aside from sticking to their historical template, it also could be financial. The Jets are losing $10’s of millions of dollars by not having fans in the stands, per an order from New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, a life-long New England Patriots fans.

So aside from historical precedent, this could also be about finances.

Maybe Christopher, and Ira Axselrad, don’t want to eat the 2.5 years left on Gase’s contract, for about $12.5 million.

And if they elevated an assistant coach, to interim coach, they would probably have to boost his salary for the rest of the year.

There is also another issue. There is a lot of nepotism on the coaching staff, so if you fire Gase, and perhaps the defensive coordinator Gregg Williams (the defense has been as bad as the offense), then you would also likely let go Gase’s father-in-law, Joe Vitt, who works with the outside linebackers, and Blake Williams, Gregg’s son, who is a defensive assistant.

It would probably be impossible to promote Gregg Williams to interim coach, a position he held in Cleveland, after he undermined Gase on Friday, essentially blaming some of the defensive struggles on the offense. How do you promote him after he seemingly sabotaged the head coach. That would rewarding nefarious behavior. Plus the Jets’ defense has been anemic this year.

And if you promoted the obvious interim coach candidate, Brant Boyer, then Gregg Williams would be so pissed, who knows what kind of job he would do the rest of the year at defensive coordinator.

So if the Jets fire Gase, there could be a domino effect, that might leave the Jets short-staffed.

But then again, if you feel Gase isn’t getting the job done, you probably shouldn’t worry about the domino effect. The Houston Texans and Atlanta Falcons fired their head coaches in-season, and both garnered victories in the first game under the interim coach.

However, based on history, it’s probably unlikely Christopher Johnson is going to fire Gase in-season.

But whenever the firing happens, if it does happen, Joe Douglas needs to pick the next coach, sans businessmen and lawyers. That’s a no-brainer, that is if they want to get this right.

October 19, 2020

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