No doubt it's a dubious time to make this argument.
One day after the oddest press conference in the history of Big Apple sports (Mickey Callaway can now exhale), Adam Gase begins his job as head coach of the Jets. This is an odd time to defend the Jets because we all just saw Gase on TV, bug-eyed and Old Testament intense, looking like one of those limping creatures from the apocalypse about to get his skull cracked by Rick Grimes.
Gase didn't hold his hypnotic gaze for a minute, one sentence, or one paragraph. He stared down the press over the entire presser, as if fire were about to shoot fire from his eyes. But, oddly enough, this is where the case for Gase begins.
The former HC of the NYJ already showed us what low-key regularity will do for a football club. Todd Bowles, a nice and noble man, gave us nothing but platitudes in press conferences and poor play on the field. Clearly, the Jets didn't give him the best tools to remove the gangrene from Gang Green, but in retrospect, it was clear Bowles wasn't quite ready to run an NFL club, and certainly not for the media microwave of Gotham.
Gase at least lands on MetLife with a resume. He guided Jay Cutler and Peyton Manning to career-best seasons in Chicago and Denver, and actually reached the NFL playoffs with Ryan Tannehill at quarterback. As another former Jets coach (Bill Parcells) often said, an NFL team's first focus has to be on winning its division. And who better to climb that mountain with than a head coach in the AFC East for the last three years?
Gase knows Miami's personnel better than anyone, has played the Buffalo twice a year, and just defeated the indefatigable Patriots with perhaps the most spellbinding last play in NFL history - the Miami MIracle - replete with laterals and missed tackles and total euphoria.
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Plus Gase is young and hungry and desperate for a Super Bowl. If your only counter to Gase is Mike McCarthy, consider he is none of those things. While Gase (who just turned 40) reached January with the wholly pedestrian Tannehill, McCarthy (who just turned 55) has never known anything but Hall of Famers under center, coaching Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers his entire career as Packers head coach. McCarthy is older, already has a Super Bowl ring, and a losing record his last two seasons lording over the most regal franchise in football.
If McCarthy were so forward-thinking and coveted, why didn't any of the eight teams looking for a head coach even offer him a contract? The Jets didn't even have to decide on McCarthy until they hired Gase because there was so little interest in him.
Granted, Gase does have some baggage. His players in Miami carried his bags for him as he left the Dolphins, with more than a few glasses raised once he signed with the rival Jets. Gase jettisoned Jarvis Landry, a popular and gifted player. He also traded Miami's best rusher, Jay Ajayi, to the Eagles, where he won a Super Bowl.
Like any hire, this one could detonate in the Meadowlands. Gase is not a sure thing or a surefire winner. But at 40 he will only get better and has Sam Darnold under his wing, and Darnold has an exponentially higher ceiling than the Ryan Tannehill. The Jets also did the right thing by hiring Greg Williams as defensive coordinator, leaving the offense to Gase and the defense to an expert. This unshackles Gase to devote his entire time toward his Ph.D. in QB play.
Williams is an Alpha who doesn't always stay in his lane. He's also the architect of Bountygate in New Orleans, the pay-for-pain system that got Sean Payton suspended for a year. But Williams could also be the exact tonic Gase needs to focus entirely on offense. Or you could have two Type A personalities clashing over control of the club.
Not that he belongs with this esteemed group, but as Gase enters his second NFL head coaching gig, he can take comfort in a few coaches who found their historical footing after they left their first job. Don Shula, Pete Carroll, Dick Vermeil, Weeb Ewbank, and some guy named Belichick all won Super Bowls during their second spin through the coaching turnstile.
If Gang Green and Gase do this thing the right way, the Jets have copious draft picks - including the third pick in this year's draft - and over $100 million in cap space. If you can look past the facial contours that cry for an exorcism, and focus on the fact that he's a football junkie (to quote Boomer Esiason) and the fact that another decent QB (Peyton Manning) can't stop gushing over Gase, then we may have something here.
Twitter: @JasonKeidel
