If you thumb through the conga line of coaches the Jets have had over the last 20 years, you probably won't say Adam Gase is the best among them.
But he sure is the luckiest.
There are many nuanced reasons the Jets faltered over the last two decades. But if the Super Bowl were a castle, Tom Brady was, more than anyone or anything else, the corporeal drawbridge that kept the Jets from reaching it since 2001.
And unlike Herm Edwards, Eric Mangini, Rex Ryan, and Todd Bowles, Gase no longer has to worry about hurdling the most accomplished quarterback in NFL history to win the AFC East, to qualify for the playoffs, or play in the league's ultimate game.
Using social media, Brady announced he will not return to the New England Patriots, and a career that produced an absurd nine Super Bowl appearances, six Lombardi Trophies, and a yearly boot on Gang Green's neck.
A 14-time Pro Bowler, Brady won NFL MVP 3 times while guiding the Pats to 11 straight AFC East crowns. (He also led the Pats to at least ten wins in 17 straight seasons.) He is second all-time in passing yards and passing touchdowns. And in the only metric that truly mattered to him, no one in the history of pro football has won more games than Tom Brady.
Even in his allegedly decayed state, Brady led the Patriots to a 12-4 record, throwing the ball to a gaggle of second-rate receivers. His most robust and reliable target, Rob Gronkowski, retired before the 2019 season, leaving Brady to rely on his considerable wit and will.
And now, after 7,275 days with New England, he's gone. Brady's departure leaves the road wide open for the Jets to finally break through that membrane that has bounced them from so many seasons. The Bills, with a robust roster that's getting better in free agency, would be the Jets primary opponent. But prepping for Josh Allen sounds a lot better than bracing for the Grim Reaper from Foxborough.
Now the Jets have something the Patriots don't - a young passer with at least the physical traits to be a franchise quarterback. Sam Darnold has been a bit confounding, looking like an all-world QB for stretches, and struggling at other times. While wearing a league-issued microphone last year, Darnold said he was seeing ghosts against, of course, the Patriots. But Darnold has flashed enough arm and accuracy to keep Jets fans optimistic. Despite missing three games last year because of mononucleosis, Darnold dragged the Jets to a 7-6 record. Had he been healthy all year the Jets may well have finished 9-7 instead of 7-9.
No matter how sublime Bill Belichick has been as the Patriots head coach, the NFL has been defined and dominated by coach-quarterback combinations. From Lombardi and Starr to Noll and Bradshaw to Walsh and Montana, the HC/QB duet has been the emblem of pro football. The Patriots' sacred tandem has been chopped in half, leaving the team wide open for dissection and destruction for the first time since the 1990s.
The Jets now have no excuses and rising expectations. They don't have that Patriots-imposed ceiling atop their division. They don't have the poisonous opponents you'll find in the AFC West or NFC West. The Dolphins have been surprisingly sturdy, but still are squarely in the middle of a rebuild. The Bills toil their aching history of four-straight Super Bowl losses and just two trips to the playoffs since 1999.
And there are the Jets. They spent copious cash to improve their team last year, signing All-Pro rusher Le'Veon Bell and Pro Bowl linebacker C.J. Mosley. They have the 11th pick in this year's draft to grab a granite pass blocker in a college crop bubbling with high-grade offensive linemen. And they have about $50 million in cap space.
But for today, in our new, science fiction world where breathing within six feet of fellow humans has become dubious, the Jets can exhale for the first time in a long time. Tom Brady is gone.
Follow Jason on Twitter: @JasonKeidel
