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It’s hard to buy this story
Talking about Colin Cowherd’s reporting the following:
“I’m told the Jets have already reached out to a top coach agent and started asking questions,” Cowherd said FS1 on Monday. “They’re going to look to college, they’re going to look to the pros. But the Jets have started the process. Of course, the Jets will deny this, but the Jets are now calling big-time agents. I’m not going to give you the name of the agent because that will give up my source. But they are calling big-time agents, Christopher Johnson, and they’re now compiling lists.”
The denied this story to Pro Football Talk.
This story makes very little sense, and the fact that it makes little sense has nothing to do with Adam Gase’s job security.
Two weeks ago Christopher Johnson described Gase as a “brilliant offensive mind” and now a couple of weeks later, he, or somebody else from the organization, reached out to coaching agents?
Perhaps Johnson’s statement on Gase was a bit hyperbolic, but I’ve been around him enough to know he’s not going to be taking to coaching agents right now?
And this leads us to second reason this story makes no sense. Let’s say they fire Gase if they lose to Denver, do you think they are going to hire an outside guy through a coaching agent to be the interim coach? Who does that?
99 percent of the time interim coaches are from the staff.
So why would you be reaching out to coaching agents now? We are three weeks into the NFL season, and the college season is just a couple of weeks old. This isn’t the time to be doing a coaching search. Most of the potential candidates, if they make a change, are extremely busy right now. If they make a move, they are likely going with an interim coach on the staff, like Brant Boyer. It would be hard to see them going with Gregg Williams, considering how poor Jets defense has played. Having 295-pound defensive linemen Henry Anderson and Quinnen Williams dropping into coverage to cover tight end Mo Allie-Cox was a really bad look. That play gained 45 yards. I could go on, but I won’t. I have documented some of the head-scratching game-day defensive personnel decisions ad infinitum.
Also, reaching out to coach agents right now, would incredibly disrespectful to Gase and his staff. Christopher Johnson isn’t wired that way. Regardless of the job Gase is doing, Johnson wouldn’t do that to him.
Colin Cowherd is probably right about Gase being in trouble, but the coaching agent story is reckless and makes little sense . . .
Speaking of angles that make little sense, you are going to hear a lot the next couple of days that the Denver Broncos are starting their “3rd-string QB Brett Rypien.”
Theoretically this is true, but totally misleading.
The first- and second- string quarterbacks, Drew Lock and Jeff Driskel, are also pretty much unproven entities, so who is to say that going to Rypien, the WAC Offensive Player of the Year in 2018, is a big drop-off.
People made a big deal about Lock finishing last year strong, but that was a tad overblown according to long-time NFL reporter, Yahoo’s Frank Schwab, who is Denver-based.
Here is what Schwab wrote before the season:
“The reality is that Lock played five games and was just OK. He was good enough that the Broncos did the right thing committing to him for 2020 and building up the offense around him. Hype is what happens when we overrate the wildly flawed idea that quarterbacks own their own record. Lock didn’t go 4-1. The Broncos went 4-1 when Lock was quarterback. There’s a big difference.”
The point I’m making here is simple.
Going from Lock to Driskell to Rypien, should not be viewed as your typical regression from the 1st to 2nd to 3rd QB.
At this point, you could throw a blanket over these three guys.
And you know what, maybe we find out Rypien is better than both of them, who knows?
September 30, 2020
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