Leaving Adam Gase is the best thing that can happen to a football player

The rise of Sam Darnold is perhaps the biggest start-to-season surprise of the young 2021 NFL season. Darnold was named No.3 overall in the 2018 New York Jets Draft, and went on to play three disappointing seasons as a quarterback for Jets teams who were consistently among the worst in the league.

The Jets team last year was one of the greatest tragedies in recent NFL history. New York started the year 0-13 to place first to secure the No. 1 overall pick and Trevor Lawrence rights. Then the Jets won their Week 15 and Week 16 games to end the year 2-14 and land the No. 2 overall pick, which turned out to be BYU quarterback Zach Wilson. Wilson threw four interceptions in his second career game.

To make way for Wilson, the Jets traded Darnold to the Carolina Panthers for a sixth-round draft pick in 2021, as well as second and fourth round picks in the 2022 draft. For the Jets, the decision marked the start. of a new era. In addition to trading Darnold, the team also fired head coach Adam Gase, who amassed a 9-23 record in two seasons and has regularly caused the franchise a great deal of humiliation. Gase currently has no job in the NFL.

Darnold was in the spotlight again Thursday night as the Panthers faced off against the Houston Texans, and once again Darnold more or less blew up. He finished the game with 23 of 34 passes for 304 yards while running for two touchdowns. Even though Darnold doesn’t exactly look like an All-Pro, he certainly appears to be a competent quarterback at the start of this season. It’s rather good!

Darnold’s recent success was used as another reason to drag Adam Gase. Screenshots like this were flying on Twitter during the Panthers’ Week 3 game:

Here’s the thing: Having a big turnaround after being freed from the terror of Adam Gase isn’t something exclusive to Darnold. The post-gas rise occurs regularly, as pointed out by Kevin Clark of The Ringer.

Ryan Tannehill also enjoyed great success after leaving Gase

Tannehill was taken by the Miami Dolphins with the No.8 pick in the 2012 NFL Draft over Texas A&M. Tannehill had a decent but unspectacular start to his career playing for Joe Philbin’s teams who typically finished 8-8 or just below. Gase was hired as a head coach in 2016, and at least for a year everything looked good.

The Dolphins were 10-6 in Gase’s first year and made their only playoff appearance of the decade. Tannehill would be injured at the end of the season. then miss the next year with a torn ACL. The QB returned in 2018 and were decent, but the Dolphins had recorded their second straight season under .500. Gase was eventually fired and Tannehill traded to the Titans for a fourth-round pick.

Tannehill quickly blossomed the following season as the NFL Returning Player of the Year. The Titans made the playoffs in each of Tannehill’s first two seasons, and he’s now generally considered a marginal top 10 quarterback.

Tannehill’s ascent is generally considered the best proof of the post-Gase hump, but there’s more where it came from.

LSU won a national championship after Gase left

Gase began his ascent in the football world at LSU, where he was graduate assistant in 2000, then defensive assistant under Nick Saban in 2001 and 2002. In 2003, Gase left to take up a scouting position with the Detroit Lions. .

What else happened in 2003? The Tigers won the national title.

Clark did some research and found it went even further than that.

Sam Darnold is now clearly destined for greatness and a Super Bowl ring

Or maybe not.

Is all of this a little unfair to Gase? Probably, but let’s be honest, he wasn’t a very good NFL head coach, especially with the Jets. Of course Darnold for maybe turning his career into three (3) games in Carolina.

I’m just salty because I’m a Bears fan whose team didn’t see a big bump after Gase left. The 2016 Bears were a total disaster.

May we all have the chance to hire and then fire Adam Gase to turn things around for our favorite teams.