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It’s just not accurate.
I was on a Miami sports talk show today.
We were talking about the Jets and free agency.
I was talking about the work of GM Joe Douglas and how he controls all personnel moves.
The host wanted to know if he’s heavily influenced by Adam Gase, since Gase “got him the job.”
This goes back to the theory that Douglas is going to be Gase’s “puppet” since Gase supposedly was responsible for getting him the GM job.
This is far from the truth, but this narrative is still out there. I’m talking about Douglas being Gase’s puppet.
Douglas is nobody’s puppet. You just have to meet him for a minute to realize that. He’s his own man.
As far as Gase getting Douglas the GM job, that isn’t accurate.
Did Gase help a little bit by supporting his candidacy? Probably.
But honestly, if you were looking for a GM at that point in time (May, 2019), who was a better candidate?
Jets owner Christopher Johnson and President Hymie Elhai knew that Douglas was the best candidate.
So yes, to a degree, Gase probably helped Douglas by supporting him for the job, but even if he didn’t, Douglas was the top candidate available.
It was a no-brainer hire.
And people who think Douglas is beholden to Gase because he supposedly helped him get the job are misreading the situation.
Douglas will make all Jets player personnel decisions.
That looks like a good thing for the Jets, and you know what, it’s a good thing for Gase.
Best scenario for Gase is to just focus on coaching the team and let Douglas handle the player personnel department.
In Miami, Gase had final say on the roster, and coaching an NFL team, and lording over personnel, might have been a little too much for a first-time coach in his late 30’s.
And Gase made a number of reactionary moves, like getting rid of Jarvis Landry, Jay Ajayi and Jordan Phillips. He also bounced three offensive lineman after a bad game for the Dolphins’ line.
Douglas could turn out to be the best thing to happen to Gase. The coach can just focus on coaching the team, and be prevented from making knee-jerk, reactionary personnel moves that coaches tend to make. Often GM’s take a 30,000 foot view, with the long-term plan in mind, and the coach is all about the hear and now and winning on Sunday.
Just coach the team, baby.
So far, in the off-season, Douglas is taking a measured, patient approach to free agency – nothing knee-jerk.
They re-signed linebacker Neville Hewitt today to a reasonable deal.
Make no mistake about it. When it comes to free agency, the draft and the final 53-man roster, it’s Joe’s show.
You can throw this narrative that Joe is Adam’s puppet in the garbage. It’s rubbish.
And that’s a good thing for the Jets, and quite honestly, for Gase also. It allows him to stay in his lane, and that is lane is coaching the team.
March 20, 2020
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