Adam Gase has already cemented his historically bad spot in NFL history.
The New York Jets and head coach Adam Gase are facing a harsh but true reality as they enter Week 4 and a Thursday night matchup with Denver. Gase is bad — and he has to. The Jets are a mess from the top down and there needs to be a fresh start, not just for the sake of Sam Darnold, but for anyone future player that takes the field as a member of Gang Green.
What makes the situation worse is that Gase is just the latest example of some of the worst coaches in NFL history and, moreover, one of the worst in the history of the Jets franchise.
Although its known that Marty Mornhinweg has the worst winning percentage in NFL history as a head coach with an 0.156 rate, that primarily falls on the shoulders of team president Matt Millen, whose mismanagement of personnel decisions ultimately led to the first 0-16 season in history.
There are other coaches that have lower winning percentages than Gase, such as Frank Cush (0.275), David Shula (0.267), Bobby Petrino (0.231) and Rod Marinelli (0.208). Despite that, all of them had some pedigree to their name. Besides a short stint with Peyton Manning and flash in the pan season in 2016 with Miami, Gase has nothing on his résume that warrants a job opportunity.
Hue Jackson was bad but Adam Gase has been worse.
Gase has a better winning record than Hue Jackson, as expected. So then, how is Hue Jackson, who went 1-15 and 0-16 better as a coach than Adam Gase?
Well, winning percentages don’t tell the entire story when it comes to a head coach. It doesn’t speak to the ability to lead 50+ men on a weekly basis and have the entire locker room trust. It also doesn’t say anything about being the voice of the team that fans, players and so on can look to for reassurance. And Gase checks none of those boxes.
Jackson did go 1-31 but the losses were primarily the fault of the organization. The front office in Cleveland has continuously gotten in the way with being too hands-on and, at many other times, completely tearing things down to begin a rebuild, as was the case when Jackson took the helm on the sidelines.
When we divulge into Gase, like Rich Kotite before him, it’s his inability to lead the team that has led to people wondering aloud whether or not he has lost the locker room. And as bad as Kotite was, the team was devoid of any talent whatsoever — plus Bill Parcells came in and rescued the team just a year later. Gase has no succession plan in place and his players show nothing but a lack of confidence in their head coach.
There’s no question, the Jets have to clean house, especially with ownership, but the first move has to be letting Gase lose and then bringing in a coach who has experience outside of one season. In other words, bring in a coach with a reputable body of work, not just a narrative of helping one of the greatest quarterbacks of all-time win.