Adam Gase led the Miami Dolphins to the playoffs in his first year as head coach of the team in 2016 before finishing with a losing record the following two seasons, but the New York Jets still decided to hire him last winter. Perhaps he helped his case by convincing his current team that Ryan Tannehill was the problem.
The Jets have been one of the worst teams in football offensively this season, ranking 28th in the NFL with 17.0 points per game and 31st with just 262.8 total yards of offense per game. That may be surprising to some given that Gase is a former offensive coordinator and the Jets signed Le’Veon Bell last offseason, but the numbers are eerily similar to the ones the Miami Dolphins put up last year under Gase. They finished 30th in the NFL with 276.9 yards per game and 29th with 16.7 points per game.
According to Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News, Gase privately blamed Tannehill for things going south in Miami. That looks even worse now, as Tannehill’s recent production with the Tennessee Titans appears to show he was not the problem in Miami.
Since taking over for Marcus Mariota, Tannehill has led the Titans to a 5-1 record and almost singlehandedly gotten them back in the postseason hunt. He has a passer rating of 113.9 on the season and has thrown 12 touchdowns compared to four interceptions. Tannehill’s average of 9.1 yards per completion leads all NFL quarterbacks.
Sam Darnold’s injury earlier in the season did not help the Jets, but Gase has not exactly worked wonders with the second-year quarterback. He’s also had some seemingly unnecessary drama with players that you don’t see with other teams.
The Jets have already committed to Gase for 2020, but he’s not going to last long if the offense doesn’t improve. He seems to be pretty good at playing the blame game, so he has likely convinced New York’s brass that he needs more control over the roster in order to succeed. Don’t expect the Jets to give him more than another season to prove it.
