In their 60 years of operation, the Jets have employed only two head coaches who won more games than they lost—Bill Parcells and Al Groh.
In many cases, the coaching here has been so bad that the team didn’t even have a chance to win.
When Adam Gase was hired in January 2019, less than two weeks after getting axed in Miami, I had that “Here we go again” feeling. Gase’s googly-eyed introductory press conference sounded off more alarms.
While Gang Green’s 7-9 record in Gase’s first campaign seems satisfactory on its face, you could tell that he wasn’t exactly a whiz at his supposed area of expertise--offense. Many of my past posts have been dedicated to proving that case.
I see this coming season, should there be one amidst a COVID-19 pandemic that won’t go away, as challenging for any coach. That the Jets experienced so much offseason turnover in their offensive personnel only adds to the concerns.
Whether the Jets thrive or dive this season depends in a large part on Gase’s growth on the job. If he doesn’t, he could easily supplant one of these five among the worst head coaches in Jets (not including Titans) history:
5) Herm Edwards
I could have easily gone with Pete Carroll here, citing his 6-10 record in his 1994 rookie season. Or Joe “Must Go” Walton for his incompetence in managing the meltdown in Cleveland in the 1987 AFC Divisional Playoff loss. Instead, I chose Edwards, who in a much-viewed 2002 press conference announced, “You play to win the game!” Unfortunately, he coached like he believed in the opposite.
Edwards’ conservatism was baffling. Knowing the difficulties of kicking in Pittsburgh’s Heinz Field, Edwards inexplicably had quarterback Chad Pennington take a knee in the closing seconds of the tied 2004 AFC Divisional Playoff game before Doug Brien hooked his 43-yard field goal attempt. The Steelers won in overtime. Poor clock management was a recurring issue in a tenure that doesn’t look awful on paper (39-41, 2-3 in the playoffs), but should have been better. Edwards’ departure to Kansas City was more fruitful, since the Jets ended up with the Chiefs’ fourth-round draft pick which they turned into useful running back/returner Leon Washington.
4) Bruce Coslet
Coslet arrived in 1990 with much fanfare regarding his offensive acumen. However, the Jets finished among the league’s top half in points scored just once in his four seasons--an 11th-place finish in 1991. The following season, Coslet benched quarterback Ken O’Brien in favor of untested Browning Nagle. It led to a 4-12 disaster. The Jets then traded for Boomer Esiason, a Coslet favorite from their Cincinnati days, for the 1993 season. After starting the season 6-4, the Jets broke single digits in points just once, a 16-14 loss in Buffalo, in their last six games.
Coslet’s last game on the Jets sideline will forever be remembered as the night Houston Oilers defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan threw a punch at offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride right before halftime. Ryan knew the Jets would need a cheat code to find the end zone that night. Up 14-0, instead of running out the last 24 seconds, Oilers quarterback Cody Carlson fumbled on his own 18-yard line after dropping back to pass. By the way, Coslet’s offense still couldn’t score.
Getty Images There’s some recency bias here, but among Jets coaches with at least 10 games, only the two below produced a lower winning percentage than Bowles’ .375. Even the 10-6 mark in his inaugural 2015 campaign ended with an ugly thud, a 22-17 loss at Buffalo that cost the Jets a playoff berth. The Jets were so unprepared to play that day--my lasting impressions were of Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis getting torched by Bills receiver Sammy Watkins throughout a windy day and Bowles holding out ailing running back Chris Ivory all first half but then allowing him to get hit on a meaningless 7-yard run on the final play. It only got worse (14-34) from there. You name it, Bowles was lousy at it—clock management, halftime adjustments, team discipline, staff strength, player development, etc. His clueless look on the sideline while the Jets burned timeouts on defense enraged fans. Some people were meant to rise no higher than coordinator.
2) Lou Holtz
He didn’t even make it through one season, but Holtz’s 1976 Jets will live in infamy. Not even George Clooney’s Batman was as poorly miscast as Holtz was as an NFL coach. Holtz, coming off a decent run at NC State, attempted to bring that rah-rah spirit to the pros. Yes, he really did hand out lyrics to a Jets fight song. He wanted legendary quarterback Joe Namath, with scotch tape holding together the ligaments in his knees at that point, to run option plays out of the veer. What could you expect? Holtz told Steve Sabol of NFL Films that he had never even watched an NFL game before the Jets took the field for their preseason opener. Namath, in his final season wearing green, and rookie Richard Todd combined to toss seven touchdown passes and 28 interceptions. Yikes. Holtz mercifully quit with one game left in the season to go back to college.
1) Rich Kotite
Who can forget former owner Leon Hess, in one of his rare press conferences, explaining in January 1995 why he canned Carroll, who went on to win two NCAA championships at USC and a Super Bowl with Seattle? “I’m 80 years old--I want results now!” Hess huffed. He hired Kotite, who proceeded to set a Jets record--for coaching futility. Gang Green went 4-28 in Kotite’s two seasons. Of the 28 defeats, only 12 were by one-score margins. If you want to blame it on lack of talent, well, Kotite was also installed as the Jets GM. In 1995, he passed on Hall of Fame defensive lineman Warren Sapp to select tight end Kyle Brady with the ninth overall pick. A year later, Kotite signed game-managing quarterback Neil O’Donnell to a large free agent contract and watched him lose all six games he started before getting hurt. That was the prelude to the Bubby-Brister-shovel-pass 1-15 debacle. At least Hess finally got it right the following season, canning Kotite and swiping Parcells from New England.
For a FAN’s perspective of the Nets, Devils and Jets, follow Steve on Twitter @SteveLichtenst1.