Is this a must-win year for New York Jets head coach Adam Gase?
Regardless of whether there are fans in the stands, or the season gets disrupted, New York Jets head coach Adam Gase has to win. Recently, there have been reports that safety Jamal Adams, who has stated his wish to be traded, counts Gase as one of the reasons he wants out of New York. NFL Insider John Clayton says that the way for Gase to win the locker room over is to start winning some games.
He hasn’t done a bad job of that, overall. In his first year with the Jets, Gase led the team to a 7-9 record. Their 6-2 close to the season is a bit of momentum that certainly has the Jets heading into this offseason upbeat.
“He’s not the easiest guy to work for,” said Clayton in an exclusive interview with SportsIllustrated.com ‘Jets Country’ contributor Seth Everett.
“Winning cures all, but when you don't win, you have unhappy players and you have a lot of turmoil.”
Clayton is one of the preeminent national personalities covering the NFL. Inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2007, Clayton was with ESPN from 1995-2017.
The New York Daily News reported a few weeks ago that Jets players simply don’t respect Gase. That report suggests that there’s a strong belief in the organization that the Jets will never become a winner as long a Gase is in charge.
In a recent conference call with reporters, Gase didn’t say whether or not he has spoken with Adams nor would he give any hints as to what internal conversations the team has had about the situation.
''Anything that's going to deal with communication with Jamal will stay between us,'' Gase said. ''That's how we're operating, keeping our locker room tight.''
Gase has worked for six teams in a variety of coaching roles throughout 17 NFL seasons. In those years, the teams he worked for only had four winning seasons. Three of those four seasons were when Gase was offensive coordinator for the Denver Broncos and future Hall of Famer Peyton Manning was having a career resurgence.
Adams has two more years left on his current contract. The Jets can control him beyond that if they choose to use their franchise tag. One report this week said that Gase was one of the reasons Adams wants out.
Clayton said that coaches that are tough with players need to have winning records. Heading into the 2020 season, Gase doesn’t have that track record as head coach; his only winning season as a head coach came in his first year with the Miami Dolphins when he went 10-6 in 2016.
