NFL Etc. Open Thread
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Finally, we will find out who is the NFL’s best coach — Pat Shurmur or Adam Gase.
Seriously, I’ve been mystified by Gase’s reputation as a genius ever since he acquired it by getting a completely ordinary Jay Cutler year out of Jay Cutler, but even I’m kind of amazed by just how awful he’s been:
But Sunday, Adam Gase experienced an even deeper level of embarrassment: He lost to a team that fired him … and is trying to lose. Last year, Gase was the coach of the Miami Dolphins, and his 23-25 record in charge of Miami hides how awful the team was—yes, they were almost .500, but 18 of those 25 losses were by double digits. They fired Gase, and were left with a team so mediocre that they opted to start over completely, trading most of their talented players for draft picks, leaving a barren husk of a team. Entering Sunday, the Dolphins were 0-7, with many expecting them to go 0-16. After all, they had the worst point differential through seven games of any team in NFL history.
For some reason, the Jets hired Gase at the beginning of this year. (I wasn’t sure why they did this at the time and remain unsure.) It has gone poorly, as the Jets entered Sunday 1-6, with the worst offense in the NFL. (Mind you, Gase is supposedly an offensive specialist.)
Sunday, the Dolphins were the better team, and by a lot. Miami got its first win, 26-18, but that’s not really selling it—Miami went up 21-7 in the first half and spent most of the rest of the game leading by multiple scores.
The Jets don’t just have the worst offense in football; they have by far the worst offense in football. The gap between the Jets and Miami is greater than the gap between Miami and the 23rd ranked Broncos. And that’s with a majority of games started by the #2 pick in the 2018 draft, who looked great in the last month of last year. (And we’ve been through this before but while yes they were stuck starting Luke Falk twice, several other teams have remained competitive being stuck starting QBs with similar pedigrees this year.) And the Jets, unlike most of the teams at the bottom of the league in offense, entered the year fully expecting to be competitive and having invested significant resources in free agency, including the best running back on the market (who has suddenly turned into Trent Richardson playing in the Guru’s schemes.)