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Just a few hours after his team lost 28-14 to the New England Patriots, Adam Gase was relieved of his duties as the New York Jets’ head coach. The move was expected considering that the Jets finished the season with a 2-14 record — second worst in the NFL — and have consistently been among the worst teams in the league ever since Gase’s arrival during the 2019 offseason.
Jets CEO Christopher Johnson released the following statement after the firing:
This evening, I informed Adam Gase he will no longer serve as the Head Coach of the Jets. During his time here, I had the pleasure to get to know Adam and his wonderful family and wish them nothing but the best moving forward. While my sincere intentions are to have stability in our organization — especially in our leadership positions — it is clear the best decision for the Jets is to move in a different direction. We knew there was a lot of work that needed to be done when Adam joined us in 2019. Our strong finish last year was encouraging, but unfortunately, we did not sustain that positive momentum or see the progress we all expected this season.
To our fans, it is obvious we have not been good enough. We are committed to building a strong organization, on and off the field, and will continue to provide the necessary resources to field a team that you can be proud of.
During Gase’s two seasons in New York, the Jets went 9-23 with four of those losses coming against the Patriots — including the final one. Ahead of that game, New England head coach Bill Belichick spoke highly of the now-fired Gase.
“I have a lot of respect for Adam. I think he’s a very good coach,” Belichick said. “He’s always been tough to coach against. He’s always made things difficult on our defense. It goes back to Josh [McDaniels] in Denver. So, known each other for a while through a mutual connection there. But, I think he’s done an excellent job. I thought he did a good job with Miami and I think he’s done a good job with the Jets.
“He’s, as I said, a coach I have a lot of respect for and he gives us a lot of problems. He’s a tough, tough coach to coach against, so that’s really the way I feel about him.”