The Jets left Gillette Stadium two years ago, after a 38-3 loss to end their season, and fired coach Todd Bowles hours later.
They hired Adam Gase less than two weeks after that, hoping that he could put the franchise back on the winning track. That didn’t happen, and now Gase leads the Jets at Gillette Stadium again for the final game of the season, which will almost certainly be his final game as head coach.
There is little doubt that the Jets will fire Gase on Sunday night or Monday morning after a terrible two-year run as a coach. Gase is 9-22 coming into this game as the Jets’ head coach, 2-13 this season. His attack is rated No. 32 in the league for the second season in a row, and defender Sam Darnold has not improved under his supervision.
All of which makes for an easy decision for the team’s CEO, Christopher Johnson. Gase did his best to ignore his work status and continue to prepare the team. He did a good job, having won the last two games after starting the year 0-13.
“I probably learned when I was 22, Nick Saban said to me, ‘You do your job until someone tells you something different,'” said Gase last week. “So this is what I’m going to focus on, and my job is to prepare to go to this Sunday and try to win a game.”
Speculation about the status of Gase’s work is nothing new. The Jets hired him days after he was fired by the Dolphins. He was unpopular with fans from the beginning, and there were calls for him to be fired early in his first season.
“I mean, that’s right,” said Gase, “I’ve been here for two years, [and] I think it started at week 6 last year. “
An interesting story for this week was the compliment that Patriots coach Bill Belichick paid Gase. The Patriots (6-9) are having their worst season since 2000. There may be changes in Belichick’s team after this season, and there is a belief in Boston that Belichick may want to sign Gase.
“I have a lot of respect for Adam. I think he’s a very good coach, ”said Belichick last week. “He was always difficult to train. He always made things difficult in our defense. … I think he did an excellent job. “
So Gase may be in his final game with the Jets, but he may be training again at Gillette soon.