With all the rumor bullshit and anonymous posting from Mehta, I thought this was cool to hear from Bell: https://www.si.com/nfl/jets/news/ny-jets-leveon-bell-talks-adam-gase-relationship
I really loved Bell's attitude last year and I am loving it again this year. The guy is always positive and professional. I hope the line gives him him room to run this year.
Yup and I'm curious to see the response from this fan base on his reaction to Gase. Everyone has held Bell in the highest regard with his good attitude and his hard work ethic. Will be interesting to discredit him as something otherwise when he speaks fondly of the head coach many hate on here
The logical person would be happy that the star RB has a good relationship with the coach, which I am very happy about. The logical person also would be well within their rights to question whether or not the coach has any clue how to use the star RB considering he went one whole season demonstrating that he does not.
The logical person would also understand that the offensive line was abysmal last year and the lack of weapons was appalling. The logical person would be able to pair a poor running back performance with a bad line and lack of weapons But who's thinking logically nowadays.
The logical person would also look at the coach's body of work as play designer and play caller. I'm just taking solace in the fact that Bell has his ear. That can only be a good thing.
Of course it doesn't. But you know, a logical person would just ignore this and still say Gase is toxic in the locker room
Gase is here for Sam, Gase and Sam are 7-6 together with the worst offensive line in the league that had 8 different players and 9 different combinations.
Gase and Sam together still led one of, if not the worst offense statistically while the defense played lights out with what should have been the worst secondary, line and LB corps in the league considering how many injuries they had. One coach pulled it off, the other didn't. I really have no desire to get into it about Gase because it's the absolute most useless conversation you can have on this site, but the concerns are more than justified. The star RB supporting the coach is a good thing though and the star RB having the coach's ear is an even better thing.
I've been watching NFL football for a long time and one thing is mostly consistent. If the defensive line dominates the offensive line, then even the best running back gets stuffed at the line and gets little or no yardage.
Especially when you send the RB in between the tackles for a majority of the time. I get it. The OL was bad. Bell by his own admission wasn't top notch. But there are flaws rooted in play design and play calling that set him up for failure.
Sam also finished the last 9 games with almost a 3-1 td/int ratio and one of the highest rated qbs. The line sunk more of the season than anything else. If the line is fixed gase is going to be here for a while and we can start the debate on whether its Sam because of gase or in spite of.
I have a ton of confidence in Sam. The fact that he personally performed well and the offense was abysmal kind of spells out the exact point.
Gase took over a (6-10) Dolphins team in 2016 and made them (10-6) the following season. 2017 he lost his starting QB for the whole season and signed Jay Cutler off the couch to go (6-10). The following year Tannehill returned, the team was okay, and finished (7-9) despite turmoil behind the scenes and Gase's eventual departure. Last year, Gase took over a (4-12) Jets team, and led them to a (7-9) record despite a horrendous (1-7) start. So the narrative that Gase is some kind of loser or bad coach makes no sense to me. There is literally zero info to back that up. He has been an okay coach with some terrible luck with his QB position and injuries. I have seen WAY WORSE coaches in the NFL and on the Jets. It is remarkable the Jets went (7-9) last year. They changed GM's, their biggest FA was instantly injured, their starting QB had mono and their back-up QB instantly was injured. The offensive line was terrible and every lineman was injured on top of that. Their #2 WR was instantly injured. Their #1 TE did not even play a full game. It was truly a nightmare. How people can't see that blows my mind.
But that's not enough. You have to claim that Gase still had horrible play calling and he was part of the reason Bell struggled. Anyone with half a fuckin brain knows why Bell struggled. He struggled because the offensive line was one of the worst in years and Bell admitted to not being himself. Period. You can not properly evaluate Gase's ability to play call with that same offensive line. You can't blame Gase when defensive lineman are breaking through our line in a split second or completely blowing coverages everywhere
