Tuesday morning’s edition of the New York Post featured a column imploring the Jets “For the love of God” to fire head coach Adam Gase “today.”
At this point, it’s only a matter of time before the second-year Jets head coach is shown the door, but this was a conclusion everyone came to just a few weeks into the 2020 season, which now sees Gang Green sitting at 0-11 as the worst team in the NFL.
If there was a time to fire him, it was around Week 4 or 5 when there was some time to turn things around — as unlikely as that might have seemed at the time.
Instead, he’s ransacked the organization, isolated and run star players out of town, and did absolutely nothing to develop the then-franchise quarterback of the future in Sam Darnold.
Now, it’s to the point where the Darnold experiment is just about over after a difficult outing in Week 12 against the Miami Dolphins during a 20-3 loss that saw the USC product throw for just 197 yards and two interceptions.
With the worst record in the league and a clear path to Clemson star quarterback Trevor Lawrence, the Jets are in prime position to pick up a generational talent who is as much of a lock as any prospect in recent years to single-handedly turn the fortunes of an organization around.
That’s the one silver lining about this trash heap of a season. That’s what is going to make all of this — the embarrassing efforts, the ridiculous press conferences, the butt of all the jokes — worth it.
So why, when the Jets are just a handful of games away from potentially drafting a franchise-altering talent, would they fire Gase now and open the door for a new coach to come in, light a fire under the franchise’s belly, win a game or two, and lose out on the No. 1 pick?
According to a study by the Action Network on Oct. 7, 28 teams have fired their head coach in-season dating back to 2003. Those teams combined to go 12-16 in the game following the dismissal of their head coach, which presents the chance of a winning-percentage far better than what the Jets currently sport.
The Cincinnati Bengals (two wins) and the Jacksonville Jaguars (one win) don’t look like they’ll win another game this year and are hot on the Jets’ heels for that top spot in the draft, so a win or even two could mean the end of the Lawrence dream.
Firing Gase with the season already over is pointless. Let him coach out the rest of the year, continue down the current path of a potential 0-16 season, and reap the rewards in the spring after he’s fired in January.
