See the new thread. But I don't understand how Gase having 2 more wins makes him TWICE the coach. Seems like he's barely any better if at all. I agree the eye test is an important factor, but I disagree that Philbin's teams played any worse than Gase's. Gase has been consistently under prepared and his teams come out flat. Philbin's teams were as well.
Was the team under prepared by the coaches or did the players fail to learn from the preparation they were given?
I think many of our players have failed to learn and I see this problem as one of attitude. Maybe some of our players don't have the mentality to learn modern NFL systems, maybe some of our players have egos that get in their way and maybe some players don't really care that much any more. Maybe it's a combination of these attitudes, but the end result is an attitude that isn't helping them advance their team standing with the coaches and worse, it hurts the team when they fail to execute the plays when they are called.
The biggest problem I was aware of was that players were freelancing instead of doing their play assignment. This was serious problem last year and is still a problem this year. It happen with Maxwell. After being benched, his play improved. Ajayi was kept home one game last year due to his behavior and this year he was traded because he still exhibited that same behavior. Being a skilled player isn't enough! Being an effective player is what is important.
I think this is a problem on many teams in the NFL, with the Patriots being the only clear exception that I am aware of. I see this as a maturity problem that most young players and many experienced players have. I think it is due to believing that their stature in social media is what makes them valuable to a team, not if they perform as the coaching staff wants them to.
A glaring example was Kaepernick. His team stopped using him as their quarterback because he wasn't playing very well. It appeared they were going to cut him. How did he react? Did he work at improving his skillset? No, he did not do that. Did he do stuff to garner media attention and try to use that as leverage to keep his job or help get another? Yes, he did that. This constant playing to the camera through social media may be self satisfying, but unfortunately it ends up being self-destructive. I used Kaepernick as an general example. I could have used Brent Grimes wife's behavior on social media as an example, but that is one person removed from the player. My interest is with the players performance and I feel their performance goes hand in hand with their attitudes.
Gase has done every thing a reasonable coach can do to help his players improve. He has been lauded by our players as being a very clear communicator. He and his coaches have worked with the players to help them improve their skill sets. It seems when he feels there is no return on his investment in a player he will make an improvement at that position by replacement. A lot of posters say the coach has favorite players. What I see is the coach plays who he feels will play the best. When he makes a change it's for that reason. He needs to put in someone who will play better.
