New York Jets Head Coach Adam Gase: 'I Love Working for Christopher Johnson'

Adam Gase talks about why he likes...no loves...working for Jets owner Christopher Johnson.

It has been a love-fest at the New York Jets practice facility this week.

On Wednesday, New York Jets CEO Christopher Johnson spoke to the media at practice, giving a full endorsement of head coach Adam Gase. On Thursday, Gase returned the love.

The backing from Johnson of Gase comes after the Jets Week loss at the Buffalo Bills. The 27-17 loss didn’t look terrible in the box score. It was all about how the Jets played, though that angered fans and made for some nasty national headlines.

“Yeah, I mean, I’ve had nothing but, like I love working for Christopher Johnson. I mean he has been the ultimate supporter, not only with our coaching staff, myself, our players,” Gase said on Thursday in his virtual press conference.

“His accessibility is unbelievable and the fact that he’s here, as much as he is, is awesome because he gets to watch practice, we’re able to talk about what’s going on, how we want to play the game, just all those interactions. I mean, I love it, just the fact that he’s around so much, it’s been really great for not only myself but I think the players and our staff because they see him all the time, he talks to everybody. That has been a great experience for me.”

Gase was a bold and unconventional hire from Johnson last offseason. As many had pegged the likes of Mike McCarthy, the former Green Bay Packers head coach, for the job the Jets CEO went out and hired a name who wasn’t on anyone’s radar.

In his first head coaching job with the Miami Dolphins, Gase didn’t have a tremendous amount of success during his three seasons with the organization. But he had a reputation as an offensive mastermind, something that appealed to Johnson and Jets brass as they had a young quarterback in Sam Darnold to develop.

But Sunday’s loss was bad and the offense was sub-standard. With just 254 yards of total offense, it was hard to see that there was any progress from Gase’s first year with the Jets.

The slow start in Buffalo was always a bit predictable. Without preseason games, the Jets were going to struggle a bit blending together four new starters on the offensive line and two new starters at wide receiver.

Now on Sunday, against the NFC Champion San Francisco 49ers, the task doesn’t get any easier for the Jets or Gase.