Content available exclusively for subscribers
I was just going over the lost tape in its entirety.
Really interesting stuff.
Well maybe it’s not truly a lost Adam Gase tape, but it’s a an interview that was never broadcast on the team’s website and there was no transcript.
It’s as close as the beat-writers are going to get these days to exclusive quotes from the coach.
After Joe Douglas was introduced to the media, Adam Gase addressed the media.
All the questions were about the Douglas’ hire. It was a really interesting tape to go back and listen to. I did that today. It was very enlightening about how Gase feels about Douglas and player personnel philosophy.
I’m going to go over a few things from this “lost” tape the next few days.
Very early on in the press briefing, Gase was asked a trap question.
Question – “You have said a ton how you ‘just want to coach, you just want to coach, you just want to coach.’ Is there a sense of relief now that because Joe is here, you can go back to doing that? Just go back to coaching.”
Gase – “Yeah. It’s really nice. The last few weeks, everyone has been all hands on deck. Guys have done a great job around the building. (Personnel executives) Jon Carr and Greg Nejmeh pulling all their guys together.”
Where do I start on this one?
Why was it a trap question?
Because clearly the implication here was that the old GM wasn’t very good, and now he has somebody competent, so he can focus on coaching.
Gase took this answer into an area I don’t think the questioner was really referencing – his time as interim GM after he forced Maccagnan out.
I highly doubt this question was about the interim period. It was only a few weeks and there weren’t a lot of decisions, aside from the overdue trade of Darron Lee.
To me, this question was basically saying – “Now that you have a real GM, not a ham and egger, you can just focus on coaching.”
Remember, the quotes from Gase about just wanting to coach the team go back to when he was introduced as Jets coach and asked about how he felt about Maccagnan having final say on the roster.
Look, I have no issue with the hiring of Gase, and the addition of Douglas was a grand slam for the Jets, but please spare me with the narrative that Gase “just wants to coach the team.”
He demanded and got final say on the roster when he took the Miami Dolphins job.
He got fired by the Dolphins, and was looking for a job, and realized he wasn’t going to get final say in his next gig, so he took the Jets job, knowing the corporate structure. The Johnson family believes the GM should pick the players, and the coach should coach the team.
Over the months that followed Gase getting hired, he battled Maccagnan over personnel decisions and eventually forced him out.
So when you consider he had final say in Miami, and then butted heads with Maccagnan over some of his personnel decisions, how does this quality as a guy who “just wants to coach the team.”
To me, what’s going on here is simple.
Gase knows he’s not going to get final say over the roster with the Johnson family, so if he’s not going to have that, which he clearly desires (actions speak louder than words), he wants the best possible person in that GM office, somebody he respects, so not having final say will be an easier pill for him to swallow.
In Douglas, he has a guy who he respects tremendously and likes personally.
July 9, 2019
Premium will return by 9:30 pm on Wednesday.