Good coaching is the key to any successful football team. A roster can be stacked with All-Pro talent across the board, but without a good coaching staff, wins will not come easy.
In 2020, having a competent head coach and a reliable group of coordinators and position coaches is more important than ever. With the COVID-19 pandemic bringing in-person offseason programs to a halt and spring football being forced to the virtual world, coaching staffs around the league will have to get their teams on the same page and ready to go for the upcoming season in record time.
In other words, the Jets could be in serious trouble.
Let’s get the obvious out of the way early. Any issue with New York’s coaching staff does not center around defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, who is beloved by his players at One Jets Drive. Despite being dealt a horrendous cornerback room upon arriving in the Big Apple and the injuries that piled up throughout the season, Williams somehow found a way to keep the Jets’ defense afloat in 2019. The Jets have plenty of concerns entering 2020, but the defense should not be one of them.
The same cannot be said for head coach Adam Gase and offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains. New York has the talent to take a major step in the right direction this upcoming season, but that is going to be tough to accomplish with those two running the show on the offensive side of the ball.
Last season, the Jets scored only 17.3 points per game — a number that ranked second to last in the NFL only above the Redskins, who spent all year dealing with quarterback and coaching issues of their own. New York’s lowly points per game number was exacerbated by Luke Falk’s historically bad stint under center while Sam Darnold was sidelined with mononucleosis, but don’t let that fool you. When it came to calling plays, Gase and Loggains were almost as bad as Falk was at executing them.
The fact that it took Darnold marching into Gase’s office for an Xs and Os discussion in the middle of the season to get the Jets rolling on offense says it all. And let’s be clear: rolling is rather generous, as New York averaged just 15.6 points per game over the final six weeks of the season after three straight weeks of scoring 34 points — and the offense had help.
Darnold was lauded for doing his part to get New York’s offense back on track midseason, but not much thought was given to Gase’s role in the problems plaguing the unit.
A second-year quarterback had to be the one to take charge and layout which plays he wanted to run because Gase couldn’t figure out what worked best for his signal-caller and supporting cast. Neither could Loggains. If two veterans of the profession couldn’t figure out how to get an offense off the schneid, yet a quarterback still wet behind the ears could, how can the Jets be confident that they will be ready to go once Week 1 of the regular season rolls around with Gase and Loggains orchestrating things?
Simple answer: They can’t be.
This will be a big year for Gase and Loggains. If the Jets fall off the rails for a second consecutive season, it’s hard to see either coach returning. It wouldn’t be a surprise if they didn’t survive the season. Both are well aware of this, which means they will be pedal to the metal throughout training camp. That doesn’t mean New York’s offense is going to come out of camp operating at peak efficiency, though. Odds are, it never will with Gase and Loggains leading the unit.
Unless Gase and Loggains magically find the formula to putting together a smooth-sailing offense in only a month, don’t expect many points out of New York for the first couple of weeks of the season. By the time they figure it out, it might be too late to salvage a successful season.