Adam Gase Will Not Succeed as an NFL Head Coach

The news came down Saturday morning that Chicago Bears’ offensive coordinator Adam Gase was going to be the next head coach of the Miami Dolphins. The Dolphins quickly confirmed the news story and introduced him as the next head coach that afternoon.

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Gase has been a hot commodity all offseason. He interviewed with multiple teams and was reportedly the top choice for multiple teams and it appeared there was almost a bidding war for his services. The Dolphins gave him a five-year contract, most first-year coaches only get four-year deals and it’s most likely the fifth year that sweetened the pot enough for Gase to sign on the bottom line and become the Dolphins next coach.

But just because you are the hot coaching prospect, it doesn’t always translate into becoming a great head coach. In 1993, the Chicago Bears hired a can’t miss coaching candidate in Dave Wannstedt. Wannstedt came over from the Dallas Cowboys as Jimmy Johnson’s defensive coordinator and coming from those great teams and under the umbrella of Johnson, he was a can’t miss. The Bears landed him and we as fans were told that we would soon forget about Mike Ditka and “Wanny” would become the man that would lead the Bears into a new generation of greatness.

Wannstedt lasted six years in Chicago. The team steadily eroded around him. He finished his final two seasons with back-to-back 4-12 seasons and he was shown the door after compiling a 40-56 record in Chicago (and a 1-11 record against the Green Bay Packers). Wannstedt had a little more success later with Miami but his head coaching career never amounted to much at the NFL level.

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Wannstedt’s problem wasn’t so much strategic, but to be a head coach at the NFL level, a coach needs to command the locker room and have the respect of all 53 players and every coach. Wannstedt failed in that department (as did Marc Trestman), and if you don’t have that level of respect from the organization, you aren’t going to succeed at this level as a head coach.

Gase has been a relatively successful offensive coordinator, but he’s rocketed up to a head coaching position pretty quickly. Gase was John Fox’s QB coach with Peyton Manning in Denver and when Mike McCoy left to become the San Diego Chargers head coach, Gase was elevated to offensive coordinator. Manning had excellent seasons with Gase, but Manning has successful seasons with everybody. He’s Peyton Manning, he’s a hall of famer, and to be honest, he’s struggled twice in his career, his rookie season, and in 2015. Manning is basically the team’s offensive coordinator when he’s playing and the coaching coordinator almost operates as a co-offensive coordinator, if not an assistant coordinator.

That’s not to say Gase didn’t have a positive impact on Manning, but it’s tough to quantify what success he had. Gase did do wonders in Chicago with Jay Cutler. He was able to get Cutler to cut way down on his turnovers and really be much smarter with the football, but a lot of that credit also has gone to Dowell Loggains the QB coach. The Bears offense was in flux and faced a lot of injuries, but the numbers at season’s end weren’t overly impressive for the unit.

So while Gase has the resume, but questionable results, I return to the point that I made earlier about Dave Wannstedt. Adam Gase needs to command the locker room and demand respect from his players and coaches. While I have no tangible evidence that players wouldn’t respect Gase as a head coach, based on his personality, I highly question it. Gase is soft-spoken, and I’ve heard from very knowledgable NFL insiders that Gase does not interview well and that’s why he was never really considered last year for a head coaching position.

At Gase’s introductory presser, his soft personality was obvious again. Not every great coach is dynamic at the podium, Bill Belichick is the perfect example, but there’s a way that Belichick answers (or doesn’t answer) questions and the way he carries himself that you know every players knows that he’s the man in charge and he deserves their respect.

I have a feeling that this opportunity has presented itself far too quickly for Gase. He’s only 37 years of age, and has only spent three years as a high level assistant. Gase also enters a situation with some talent on offense, but a locker room that has had issues in the past and a quarterback in Ryan Tannehill that has a lot of money headed his way, but not a lot of success. Gase has an uphill battle in Miami, and I’m not sure if he has the personality and the experience to lead this team up the hill and to the promised land.

Time will tell, but if you asked me, my gut tells me Adam Gase will be someone’s offensive coordinator once again around 2019.