The jokes wrote themselves.
Midway through the second quarter of Thursday Night Football, with Sam Darnold off to a strong start and the Carolina Panthers looking in good shape against the Houston Texans, the jokes were flying on Twitter. The man bearing the brunt of them? Former New York Jets head coach Adam Gase. For example, some were ready to hire — and immediately fire — Gase as their life coach.
After all, if separating from Gase could turn Darnold around so quickly, imagine what it could do for your life?
The Ringer’s Kevin Clark went the deepest down the Gase rabbit hole, pointing out that not only did Ryan Tannehill improve after moving on from Gase, not only did the Denver Broncos win the Super Bowl the year after he left town, and not only did LSU win a National Championship a year after his departure, but his high school team won the Michigan state championship the year after his graduation.
So, as Robert Mays suggests, perhaps a team should hire Gase:
Some enterprising team should hire Adam Gase for one year just to give their QB the post-Gase bump.
Play the long game.
— Robert Mays (@robertmays) September 24, 2021
With the Panthers now 3-0 on the young season, and Darnold playing better football, now is perhaps the time to deliberate the Darnold question. Is the quarterback actually playing better, or is this a mirage, setting Panthers fans up for inevitable disappointment?