Lemme start by saying yes, I am a Gase fan. I think he is a good coach that is going to become a very good coach.
But, he's young, and maybe for the first time he's facing a new kind of adversity. I'm not talking about losing. He can probably handle that. But he bet on Cutler, and it hasn't worked. He preached accountability, and the OL coaching fiasco exploded in his face. He tried to keep the offensive linemen out of the line of fire to protect them after that fiasco, and they just played horribly. He tried to send a message to the team by getting rid of one of our best players, and that backfired and morale plummeted. He's doing what seem like good smart things. He's actively making what might in other situations be good moves. But none are working, and they're compounding on one another.
He tried to protect his players with how he handled the OL, but he lost other parts of the team. He tried to show his strong leadership with the Ajayi move and may have lost most of the locker room. Injuries have hurt us, but what Gase is doing has backfired. Now he has a media problem. He can't talk about the OL because it will cause a swarm of dysfunction articles and focus the fans on how his staff is the problem ... including his father-in-law and the Anthony trade. But, he can't fix the OL either, and he's supposed to be an offensive guru, so the blame is squarely on his shoulders. All of our QB's are legitimately scared of getting hit ... and it's happening a lot. We have no meat and potatoes back. Our current best offensive player, Landry, is an enigma, great emotional leader and phenomenal catcher and runner, but he's slow, not particularly big, and doesn't study the playbook enough ... and will be demanding $15M+ per year that we cannot pay. None of this gets resolved until the offseason, and things are hemorrhaging fast.
Skipping his coaching show may win him small plaudits from the locker room, who would find it ironic that he kept his show and crowed about how good he is on TV while they're enduring this because of him. But, it's not drawing the fans away from their concerns. Ultimately, a coach is judged on winning. He needs to get past all of that and find a way to win. If the first 5 things you try don't work, keep trying until you find the one that does.
There have been other coaches that weren't instantly great. He may have some learning to do. And while I wholly disagreed with his Ajayi decision, and do hold Gase responsible for the coaching fiasco and the poor performing OL, I still have faith that Gase can get it done. Let's see how he weathers this storm.
