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Jacksonville, FL – A bunch of stuff to get into from here in North Florida . . .
Walked by John Idzik down by the Jacksonville locker room. He’s an executive with Jaguars now. I said hello to him. He’s not a war criminal or a punch line, just decent man who didn’t do the best job in his two years as GM.
It made me think of Adam Gase’s future. Remember the media and fans contributed to Idzik’s quick departure. Some fans hired planes to fly over Jets practice calling for Idzik’s dismissal.
The Jets, at times, have shown a proclivity to react to public pressure. Perhaps that happened in 2015 with Doug Marrone, who kicked their butt for the second year in a row.
Could what happened to Idzik, happen to Gase – a quick hook? Probably not after one year. Idzik got two years.
And plus, I doubt there will be a lot of media pressure to bounce Gase quickly. Most of the reporters really like him. He’s developed some good relationships on that front. And two of the most prominent Jets beat writers have both written recently that it’s ridiculous to consider firing him in his first year.
If the Jets continue down this embarrassing road the rest of the year, what might Christopher Johnson do?
My guess is major coaching staff changes. That is usually the first shot fired by the owner when his hand-picked coaches struggles early on . . .
But I will say one thing in Gase’s defense, and I’m not saying the coach is doing a great job, but I think the mainstream media, and team’s social media hype about the QB doesn’t match his skill set right now. He has now thrown seven picks in the last two games.
This idea that Gase the QB guru was taking over a “can’t miss” prospect was way overblown. The QB has a lot of work to do on reading defenses and going through his progressions. There is only so much a coach can do once the ball is snapped.
True, the offensive line hasn’t been great, but not all the picks are on the offensive line. One big problem is Darnold doesn’t throw with a lot of anticipation, so a lot of his throws are late. Like a lot of young quarterbacks, he wants to see a receiver flash open, and then fire the ball, but in the NFL, with the small windows most secondaries give you to throw into, that is hard to do.
Darnold clearly has an major interception problem, which can’t just be blamed on Gase. Darnold had 13 picks his last year at USC, 15 in 13 games as rookie, and now eight in four games this season. This just in – Gase has only coached him this year, and had nothing to do with 2017 and 2018.
Gase was seen huddling with Darnold at his locker after the game. Gase knows Darnold’ improvement is a key factor in his job security. If he can take the kid to the next level, he could be in Florham Park for a long time.
But maybe people were overrating the player Gase was taking over, at least overrating him at 22, early in his career. This player has a lot of work to do . . .
Jets rookie left tackle Chuma Edoga had a rough game today, but that should not have come as a surprise. A rookie left tackle, who might be a better fit at right tackle, facing one of the NFL’s premier pass rushers, Yannick Ngakoue is a recipe for problems, and Ngakoue beat him for two sacks, and also drew him off-sides once.
And Edoga might have been injured in this game. Long after most of the Jets left the stadium, he was still in the stadium, and it looked like he was waiting for some kind of medical test . . .
Jets cornerback Trumaine Johnson was limping badly in the Jets locker room after the game. He hurt his ankle. We probably won’t see him for a while and this might hurt the team’s ability to trade him as well . . .
So what happened on Leonard Fournette’s 66-yard run on his first carry. The Jags got a hat on a hat, and guys like Steve McLendon and Kyle Phillips got engulfed in the middle of the line, and then Blake Cashman on the second level. Also, Jamal Adams was blitzing, so he couldn’t help on the second level.
One Jets defender said they were “misaligned” a little bit on that play, but fixed their run defense moving forward, which is true. On Fournette’s 18 other carries he gained 10 yards . . .
October 27, 2019
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