Jets finally fire Adam Gase

Just five months after Mike Maccagnan hired Adam Gase, Gase stabbed him in the back. Then the new Jets coach called his own shot. “I think fans care if we win or lose,” Gase said in May 2019 of a power struggle that had gone comically sour. “If win games, nobody’s going to care about this, I’ll tell you that. Our job is to win. That’s it.”

Gase was right. Unfortunately, he spectacularly failed at the only thing fans care about. The Jets fired him Sunday night with a 9-23 record over two seasons.

“This evening, I informed Adam Gase he will no longer served as the Head Coach of the Jets,” acting owner Christopher Johnson said in a statement Sunday night.

“While my sincere intentions are to have stability in our organization — especially in our leadership positions — it is clear the best decision for the Jets is to move in a different direction.

“Our strong finish last year was encouraging, but unfortunately, we did not sustain that positive momentum or see the progress we all expected this season,” Johnson said in the statement.

Johnson will presumably be replaced by his brother, Woody, when the Trump administration ends later this month. Woody is currently Trump’s ambassador to the United Kingdom.

“To our fans, it is obvious we have not been good enough. We are committed to building a strong organization, on and off the field, and will continue to provide the necessary resources to field a team that you can be proud of,” Johnson said.

The owners wielded significant power in the ill-fated hires of Gase and Todd Bowles, undercutting their front offices and forcing awkward fits at the top of the team. General manager Joe Douglas will get to pick his own coach, more or less, according to a report from The Athletic on Sunday night.

Rich Kotite (4-28, .125) and Lou Holtz (3-10, .231) have worse winning percentages as Jets head coaches. But the only thing that stopped Gase from being the worst Jets coach ever was a facility for meaningless wins at the end of the season. He won three games last December and two games this December. He only won four other games with the Jets.

Kotite and Holtz never coached in the NFL again, with Kotite leaving coaching entirely and Holtz returning to college for the next three decades. Gase might not crash out quite so completely, but the man only knows offense, and his Jets and Dolphins teams were terrible on offense. It’s hard to imagine him even getting a coordinator job at the NFL level; the only opening he’s been rumored for is the Patriots’ QB coach job.

Ironically, it was Gase’s own ego that may have the Jets relatively well positioned for the future. By overthrowing Maccagnan and handpicking Douglas, he put the Jets at what could be beginning of a long and painful road to contention. The last two seasons were total dreck, but Douglas’ maneuvering over the last year has the franchise in a relatively decent position. Quinnen Williams and Mekhi Becton are legitimate cornerstones on the lines, and the team is loaded with draft picks and cap space — the co-MVPs of the last decade of New York sports without winning a game.

Now Douglas is on the clock to pick a head coach and quarterback, perhaps in tandem, if the Johnson family will give him the keys. The only unforgivable choice would be making a retread hire — you know, like Gase. According to NFL Network, which first reported Gase’s firing on Saturday night, the Jets, like everyone else, are considering the flavor-of-the-month NFL assistants and college head coaches. The names in that report included Eric Bieniemy (Chiefs OC), Matt Eberflus (Colts DC), Wink Martindale (Ravens DC), Arthur Smith (Titans OC), Brandon Staley (Rams DC), Matt Campbell (Iowa State) and Dan Mullen (Florida).

There are several Gases on the market, too. Longtime Cowboys coach Jason Garrett ran a terrible Giants offense this year — only not the NFL’s worst because of the Jets — and Jim Harbaugh has not exactly looked like a genius at Michigan.

Not mentioned in the report was Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll, whose work with Josh Allen has made him into a popular head coaching candidate.

The second half of the equation is just as tricky. What to do at quarterback? Under Gase, Sam Darnold has been one of the worst quarterbacks in the NFL, whether you look at his production or his tape. Douglas could bet that Gase’s coaching was the problem. In that scenario, he could bring in a cheap veteran on a short contract to compete with Darnold, or just roll with Darnold. It would be a low-risk bet with Darnold still having a year then his option on his rookie contract.

Or he could go all-in on one of the college quarterbacks who isn’t Trevor Lawrence. That could mean taking Justin Fields (Ohio State), Trey Lance (North Dakota State), or Zach Wilson (BYU) at No. 2 overall, or trading down for one of them.

Even if Gase rarely took any blame for the Jets’ struggles, he could be self-effacing in his own way. He once called himself a “f---ing jackass” and said “I’m no scientific rocket” about his own limitations, which now have the Jets starting over from nearly scratch this offseason. As another New Jersey man who struggled with cliches would have put it: The Jets are at the precipice of an enormous crossroad.