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I don’t want to be considered guilty . . .
. . . of having a double standard.
The other day, I gave credit to Adam Gase for not going out and hiring a bunch of his friends on his coaching staff.
That was a bit of a problem with the previous two coaches.
And before I continue, I want to point out another problem with hiring friends on your staff – they are harder to fire.
I don’t like to fire coaches publicly, but I just want to point out that the prevoius two Jets coaches did replace assistant coaches during their time with the team, but not the friends, and along the way, sometimes the area their friends were controlling was a problem.
That makes the hiring of friends even more tricky.
Now back to my original point.
The Jets hired Dowell Loggains as their offensive coordinator today.
He worked with Gase in Chicago in 2015 and Miami in 2018, so somebody said to me the other day when I was praising Gase for not hiring friends, “What about Loggains (who was rumored at the time as the leading candidate for the Jets OC job)?”
My response to this is two-fold.
First off, I don’t think Loggains and Gase are close friends.
First off, it wasn’t Gase who hired the staff in Chicago, it was John Fox, the head coach of the Bears at the time. Gase and Loggains had little to no relationship when he Dowell was hired in Chicago.
But clearly Gase liked the Loggains work.
So when Fox was fired after the 2017 season, Gase hired him in Miami.
But just because you hire somebody who worked with you before, it doesn’t mean you are close friends.
Obviously people in any industry, when they take new jobs, hire people who worked with them before.
The second point here is that Loggains is taking jobs with the Jets where he is a “titular head.”
For those who don’t know that expression, it’s defined as “a person in an official position of leadership who possesses few, if any, actual powers.”
Let’s be honest, Gase is the Jets’ offensive coordinator and quarterback coach. He’s going to call the plays and be the potter molding the piece of clay named Sam Darnold.
Loggains has a reputation around the NFL as having a very creative offensive mind. He’s going to be a guy who helps Gase in the laboratory of ideas.
You see what Sean McVay is doing with the Los Angeles Rams with all the motion, misdirection and chicanery. Everyone wants a piece of that action in the NFL. Loggains is another one of those young hot shots (he’s 38) with a fruitful offensive mind. He’s going to help Gase a great deal on offensive game plans.
But clearly, while he has the title off offensive coordinator and QB coach, is he really?
That is going to be Gase.
And these guys only worked together two years in their careers.
Let’s not make this into a situation where they are bosum buddies.
So I really don’t consider this a case of Gase hiring a friend, so to speak.
January 23, 2019
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