Adam Gase's Former Miami Dolphins' Players React to His Sunday Return with the New York Jets: 'He Truly Cared'
Sunday is the return of Adam Gase to his old team, the former head coach of the Miami Dolphins now leading the New York Jets. It is a big moment for Gase against the team that fired him and an opportunity for his former players to welcome him back.
Gase on Thursday called his return to Miami “weird” as he readies to face an organization where he was the head coach for three years, beginning in 2016. And while that tenure produced just a singular winning record and playoff appearance (which came in 2016 no less), Gase is downplaying Sunday’s game and any personal significance.
For the Dolphins players he left behind, Sunday’s game is meaningful. His former team gave a very solid endorsement of Gates the head coach and the man.
“I’d just say me personally, he truly cared about me,” said Dolphins wide receiver Jakeem Grant.
“That’s what I love about him. It has nothing to do with football. Me and him have a relationship outside of football. Like I said, I talk to him outside of football. Whenever the season is not going, I just talk to him. He asks me how my family is doing and I ask him the same, and just things of that nature.”
Gase is off to a difficult start in his first year with the Jets, who are 1-6 and struggling on both sides of the ball. Injuries have decimated the roster and an offseason shakeup after the NFL Draft where Joe Douglas replaced Mike Maccagnan as general manager also hurt the team’s direction. It has been anything but a normal season for Gase.
Then again, there is no such thing as normal when it comes to the Jets.
A team that spent heavily in free agency suddenly was thrust into a bit of a rebuild when Douglas came on board. Gase, an unpopular selection among many fans as the team’s head coach, has been under the microscope all year long as the losses started to mount.
While players such as Le’Veon Bell have preached patience and to trust the proverbial process, the best endorsement of Gase might come from those in his old locker room who were led by the man. Words like those from Grant carry some weight that Gase has the chops to turn this team around.
Gase’s return surely has some significance for the Dolphins organization, but getting a win is likely more important at this juncture. Miami is 0-7 after all and any game against the Jets is a rivalry.
“It’ll be big, but I don’t think it’d be big because we beat him,” linebacker Jerome Baker said when asked about potentially beating Gase and the Jets.
“It’d be big because we finally got it down, we finally got a win. We’re not going to focus on beating him necessarily. We’re going to focus on beating the Jets. It’s definitely going to be a good one.”
