A Bad, Unsurprising Update on Adam Gase's Job Security

You thought you were about to be rid of him, didn't you Jets fans?

You heard the news that Adam Gase could be fired if he lost to the Colts and Broncos, as reported by Chris Mortensen on ESPN's Sunday NFL Countdown, and you got your hopes up that the offensive genius who can't get the Jets to muster any offense was about to be canned.

Well, if that's the case, I come baring bad, yet totally unsurprising news.

According to NFL.com insider Ian Rapoport, Gase's job is not on the line tonight when the Jets host the Broncos. Rap reports the Jets brass, which Mortensen said was evaluating Gase with a close eye on tonight's game, believe it's counterproductive and "potentially damaging to quarterback Sam Darnold" to fire him mid-season.

To me it would be more damaging to allow Gase to keep coaching Darnold based on the latter's performance the last two seasons, but we'll get to that in a moment. For now, let's focus on the fact that the Jets are prepared to make more excuses for Gase as they try and save face over a horrendous hiring.

In the story by Rapoport, he cites the Jets thinking is their team has injuries to "top running back" Le'Veon Bell and others and it's not fair to judge Gase with so many "key injuries." He also says the Jets are hoping he can turn things around similarly to last year when they went 6-2 down the stretch.

With all due respect to that line of thinking, it is moronic to believe anything will change.

Gase has gone 7-12 as the Jets head coach with a -140 point differential. The offense he installed was 31st in the NFL in scoring in 2019 and is 32nd in the NFL this year. They've scored 37 total points this season and are averaging 16.5 points per game under Gase's tutelage. He's never utilized Bell the way the former All-Pro should be utilized (as in, give him some damn carries) and Darnold has not progressed in the slightest with Gase, the former QB coach, leading the way. If anything, Darnold has regressed (interception percentage up, TD percentage down, accuracy down, year-over-year).

The Jets remained committed to Gase after last season despite his contentious relationship with several players, the media and even fans. Now they're extending his leash further despite a proven track record of failure with this franchise and even as Miami's head coach, though admittedly a previous job performance shouldn't impact their evaluation here. Regardless, Gase has been terrible in New York and the idea that he deserves more time to prove himself is laughable.

Still, the Jets feel he deserves more time and Darnold could still learn a thing or two from him. That's bad news for fans who hoped a change might save their season and former No. 3 pick, but that's par for the course when rooting for the J-E-T-S.