The Next Patriots QBs Coach is Rumored to Be ... Adam Gase?

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I don't ask for a lot out of this insane, upside down existence we've been stuck in. For sure, I stopped asking for certainty a long time ago. I'm willing now to live strictly on the magic power of hope. Even a fool's hope will do. Hope the vaccine works. (And that there'll be doses left for bloggers who work from home once the other 330 million Americans higher on the priority list get theirs.) Hope the new government will fix the country. Hope the Irish Rose never realizes she could do much, much better. 

And as much as anything, that the 2020 Patriots season turns out to be an anomaly. A one & done, and not the new world order. A part of our past, not the way of our future. A necessary bridge year that had to happen in order to get back to the way things were meant to be in Foxboro. But now the first rumors about 2021 and coming in, and if they're true, it might be time to abandon all hope, ye who enter here. 

MMQB - The Patriots’ staffing situation is … one to keep an eye on. QB coach Jedd Fisch is gone and OC Josh McDaniels might be too. Jets coach Adam Gase (assuming he’s fired), Browns assistant/ex-Patriots WR coach Chad O’Shea and current tight ends coach Nick Caley are three guys who I think could factor into the new setup. Gase worked for McDaniels in Denver, and O’Shea left Foxboro on good terms two years ago. 

WEEI - Ben Volin of the Boston Globe offered up a surprising and interesting name to keep an eye on: current Jets head coach Adam Gase. 

"I heard some buzz last night. You hear the name to watch for the Patriots' next quarterbacks coach: Mr. Adam Gase," Volin said. "He goes all the way back to 1999 on the Michigan State staff with Josh McDaniels. They worked under Nick Saban. Adam Gase and McDaniels are tight. Look out for that one."

As Volin points out, Gase and McDaniels have some history. In addition to their time together as assistants at Michigan State, Gase was also the wide receivers coach on McDaniels' Broncos coaching staff in 2009-10. 

Gase also revealed earlier this season that Belichick reached out to him after he was fired by the Dolphins and that the two have formed a good relationship over the last couple years

The Patriots go into the season. The coaching staff goes into the season. Adam Gase goes into the season. Our Adam Gase.

Look, I appreciate that Gase has history with Josh McDaniels and Bill Belichick. I'm sure they have a lot of mutual friends and see football from a similar perspective and are capable of speaking in the same nomenclature and all that. But if there's one thing that has been proven beyond all doubt over the last few years is that Adam Gase is not the man you want coaching your quarterback. 

Consider:

• Gase was on McDaniels staff in Denver from 2009-10. The finished 20th and 19th in points and it cost McDaniels his job.
• Gase survived and was the QB coach and coordinator for the Peyton Manning-led offense for three seasons, one of the most stacked lineups in NFL history and which holds the all time scoring record for a single season
• In 2015 he became the OC for the Bears, who finished 23rd in points.
• In his two seasons with Gase as head coach in Miami, Ryan Tannehill's passer ratings were 93.3 (12th best) and 92.7 (20th). The following season in Tennessee, Tannehill's passer rating was 117.5, best in the league. He also finished first in yards per attempt, yards per completion and net yards per attempt.
• Gase's current Jets team is last in the league in points, yards and passing yards, and 30th in passer rating. In his third NFL season, Sam Darnold is 34th in completion percentage and 36th in passer rating.

That's the resume of the guy you want to have righting your ship? Whether it's fixing Cam Newton, developing Jarrett Stidham or training their replacement? Not to mention the way he won a power struggle over Mike Maccagnan, the GM who hired him on the basis of this thin curriculum vitae and got him fired within months. And then finally couldn't pull off the one thing his franchise needed from him, which is go 0-16. I can't see where that's the guy you want to have in your coaches and quarterbacks room, just because you send each other Christmas cards or whatever. 

There's only one way this would make sense. And that is if this was the plan all along. That Belichick was playing a long con. Gase is secretly a genius and he was sent to destroy to AFC East rivals from within and then come back to the fold. Like a spy who undermined a foreign country and then was called back once his mission was complete. If that's the case, then he did a thorough job and deserves to be rewarded. If that's not the case, we need no part of him coming to Foxboro and messing up a position that's been a disaster all on its own this year, without his help. PASS.