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I truly think these things are foolish and mean nothing . . .
. . . but it did made me think of something to write about.
Power rankings are silly.
Who really cares?
I don’t understand the point of them. Ranking NFL teams 1-32; why is that necessary. This isn’t college football where rankings matter.
NFL.com did a different type of Power Rankings this yesterday – they ranked the NFL coaches 1-32.
Why I really don’t care much about rankings, it made it ponder what the Jets have in head coach Adam Gase, who was ranked 25th.
While the ranking is meaningless, it does give us a feel the perception of the Jets’ new head man, who was fired after the 2018 season by the Miami Dolphins after three seasons.
Gase is extremely bright and has a fertile football mind.
I thought in both Dolphins wins over the Jets last year, he out-coached the Jets, and manufactured wins. He beat them in one game with Brock Osweiler at quarterback, a great athlete, but he can’t read NFL defenses. Notice he hasn’t been signed this off-season.
And I think, moving forward, the Jets will rarely get out-coached. Over the previous ten seasons, there were too many occasions where this happened.
I believe the Jets three play-callers – Gase (offense), Gregg Williams (defense) and Brant Boyer (special teams) are the best trio they’ve had in a long time.
They also will bench or replace guys who don’t get the job done. When you keep guys out there who are hurting your team, because you don’t want to hurt their feelings, that can impact wins and losses.
So from a strategy and accountability standpoint, the Jets should be in good shape.
But the big question about Gase is about leading the whole team. Can he be a good head coach for the whole team? You got the sense that some defensive players in Miami felt he favored the offensive side of the ball. There was a perception by some defensive players that he would be critical of them, but not lay a glove on QB Ryan Tannehill, who was very inconsistent.
Recently when I asked Jets OLB coach Joe Vitt what it’s like coaching with his son-in-law, he snapped “He’s on the other side of the ball.”
It occurred to me a couple of days later that this answer might be little problematic, and it nothing to do with the tone of his answer.
There should be no “other side of the ball” for a head coach. He should be the head coach of the entire team.
So while Gase has an outstanding defensive coordinator in Gregg Williams, and shouldn’t mess with him too much, he needs to be his boss, just like he is with Boyer.
Based on Vitt’s answer basically implying he really doesn’t work with Gase, this is something we need to keep an eye on.
So the bottom line is – Gase should be fine with the X’s and O’s, but how will he do leading the entire Jets roster, not just the offense?
July 16, 2019
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