The New York Giants have perplexed their fans and the football world with their recent flurry of curious personnel moves, such as trading star wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr., allowing safety Landon Collins to walk away via free agency and selecting Duke quarterback Daniel Jones with the sixth overall pick in this year’s draft.
The talk of the town was that the Giants were now the model for dysfunction, a title long held by their co-tenants — the New York Jets.
But the Giants wouldn’t hold that distinction very log. The Jets wrested back the mantle with a curious move of their own this past week. Their out-of-his-depth owner, Christopher Johnson, fired general manager Mike Maccagnan and named head coach Adam Gase to the position on an interim basis.
Former Jets special teams guru Mike Westhoff, never one to hold his tongue when it comes to pointing out idiocy, believes the Jets are dysfunctional as ever by entrusting the underachieving Gase with such broad responsibilities.
“I guess the question I would have is: Based on what?” Westhoff told NJ Advance Media in a phone interview Saturday. “It’s almost like the Giants were wearing the dunce hat in the city, and all of a sudden, the Jets came along and took it.”
Westhoff doesn’t believe that Gase, who went 23-26 with the Dolphins, including 0-1 in the playoffs, deserves to be held in such high regard by the Jets.
“I’m really curious as to what he’s earned,” he said. “Look at his record in Miami.”
Westhoff isn’t sold on Gase as a coach and pointed out that he choked in the biggest game of his career — a 43-8 crushing at the hands of the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX as the offensive coordinator of the Denver Broncos.
“I thought it was a terrible offensive game plan, and Seattle killed them,” said Westhoff. “I was wondering what made him so good on offense, because I sure didn’t see it that night.”
Overall, Westhoff is only saying what many football fans and analysts are saying these days. The Jets are crazy for putting their future in the hands of such an unproven entity as Gase.
“I’m not knocked out on the guy,” said Westhoff. “What do you want me to say? I don’t know everything there is to know about him, but what I do know, I’m not knocked out. Maybe he’ll be fine. Maybe he is a heck of a coach. What I’ve seen, how does he carry the weight to have an argument with the general manager? I guess I’m not convinced.”
Valid points all around. Giant fans are breathing a sigh of relief. Just when they thought they had surpassed the Jets in the ineptitude department, the Jets stayed true to form and took back the lead.
