Jets CEO Christopher Johnson is expected to fire coach Adam Gase at the end of this season, and Gase admitted Wednesday that he feels like he let his boss down.
The Jets are 0-13 this season and 7-22 in Gase’s two years at the helm. On Wednesday, he was asked if he feels like he let down Johnson.
“Yes,” he replied. “I’ve tried to figure out where things went wrong, what can we change. You’re trying to evaluate things as you go and adjust to try to fix whatever the issue would be for that month or that three games or four games. At the end of the day, it’s about winning. We haven’t done that. For him not to feel a playoff feel of being competitive in December it’s disappointing to me that we haven’t been able to do that for him.”
Gase said he has expressed to Johnson how badly he feels about how things have gone this season.
“I’ve told him multiple times [that] he deserves better, especially with how he is with our players, our staff, our coaches, anybody involved in this organization,” Gase said. “I couldn’t ask to work for a better guy.”
The Jets are in the conversation as one of the worst teams in NFL history. Their minus-210 point differential is the second-worst in franchise history, and it is sure to grow over the final three games and pass the 1976 mark of minus-214.
Gase was hired to help quarterback Sam Darnold progress and improve the offense. Instead, Darnold has gotten worse and the offense is ranked dead last in the NFL in total offense, passing offense and scoring offense.
Johnson last spoke to reporters in September and backed Gase, calling him a “brilliant offensive mind.” Since then, the Jets have done nothing but lose and are on track to be just the third team to ever finish 0-16.
Gase said his postgame conversations with Johnson usually focus on how to fix the team.
“I’ve never seen anger,” Gase said. “He’s like all of us. He wants to win as much as we do.
“Anything he’s ever said to me after a game really, it’s been more about our guys, how hard they’re playing, what do we need to do different to try to change the result. Do we need to get different guys out there? He can see it and look at, ‘Ok, are we playing hard or not? Where are we making our miscues?’ Some of them are obvious to everybody of, ‘Hey, we lost that game because of this, penalties or we didn’t finish the game situationally, we let a ball get over our head when we shouldn’t.’ We have those discussions. He can see the effort the guys are playing with. We’ve just got to find a way to finish some of these games.”
Though Gase believes Johnson realizes how hard the team is playing, he understands that wins and losses are all that matters.
“This is a results-oriented business,” Gase said. “Nobody cares about the process for the most part. Coaches and players have to focus on the process. That’s what we have to do. Outside of that, most people are just looking for the end result.”