It’s funny, because last year Gase changed his system at the bye and got a playoff birth, but somehow we all believe he has changed nothing this season...seems kind of suspect to me. Furthermore, Gase is on record that the team doesn’t like him due to his pointing out flaws in victories and constantly pushing for greater precision and learning. He has also indicated that the best players on the team don’t put in the work to learn the playbook and improve, but think they can skate by on talent. That press conference is where I believe Gase lost this team, and trading Ajayi just cemented it.
Now, if what Gase says is true, are those players worth keeping? Is it worth having a team who defies their coach and doesn’t work to improve? Regardless of who the coach is, do you really want players with no work ethic or professional pride who just lay down hoping the coach will be fired? What have all these great players accomplished so far without Gase to feel they are just fine?
Is Gase on the hot seat? I would say yes. Should he be let go? I don’t think so, at least not yet. Good teams have coaches with long tenures. Gase is young and has the disposition to really grow into the next big coach, but he is very young and will make mistakes. Maybe we need to let him mature a bit as well and have a roster that buys in before we railroad him out of town. Remember, constantly firing coaches year after year makes your team undesirable for any good coaching candidates except the unproven. It has to stop somewhere or we will continue our same malaise forever.