I don't know of any QB in the league that has had to go through what he has endured since coming into the league in 2012. It's beyond ridiculous. You can blame the franchise for all of it and him for very little.
All I know is what I've seen (which is every game, some multiple times plus all-22 film) and I was borderline ready to throw in the towel at one point after a couple of poor performances.
Then he bounced back and what I have seen is steady improvement. As bad as the team has been he still put up good numbers and performances. Sometimes with very questionable talent around him. A couple of 4,000 yard seasons and 2:1 Td to int ratios and then a huge jump in efficiency the following year under Gase.
He may indeed be an average QB if you sum up the entire career but if you look at the circumstances and the growth, you can see the ceiling is much higher. This is what Adam Gase sees.
* Inexperienced college QB who only played in 19 games.
* Starts off with a line coach pretending to be a head coach
* Starts off with an OC who was run out of the league until his buddy brought him back. (Where is he now?)
* Starts off with the leagues worst set of WR's (Hartline, Naanee, Bess)
* Bullygate (loses best lineman)
* starting center who cannot stay on the field
* starting RT who cannot stay on the field
* gets Pro Bowl LT who then cannot stay on the field
* learns 2nd offense under new OC
* head coach fired mid-season (interim HC)
* New head coach & 3rd new system
* coke head, embarrassment of a hooker banging line coach
* ACL injury
* reinjured ACL
* declining defense that has gotten worse and worse since 2011
People always want to point to these as excuses but they are just the circumstances he had to deal with....they are the facts.
How does he handle it? Like a Champ. He's great off-field and a true professional representative of this highly dysfunctional team. He doesn't crack under the pressure like so many QB's have in this league.
The TEAM struggled for the first 5 games of 2016 (1-4 record) and he still manages to post a 93.5 QBR over the 13 games he played. He also posted a 102.5 QB rating from game 6 to 13. There was obvious growth there for everyone to see.
Most people saw the growth under Adam Gase. That's why he is still here and will be the starting QB in 2018. Make no mistake. This is the "make or break" year. I am confident (and hopeful) he makes it....because I see a guy more than capable of being a top 10 QB (as opposed to the average one).
