Why Adam Gase Should Not be the Denver Broncos Next Head Coach

By Joe Morrone | Jan 14, 2015

Denver Broncos offensive coordinator Adam Gase spoke with John Elway at length on Wednesday about the vacant head coaching position. The reports are that it was not a formal interview but more of a touching base between Gase and Elway.

Gase spent most of Tuesday talking with the San Francisco 49ers for a second time about their head coaching position, and there appears to be mutual interest on both sides. It’s my guess that the 49ers are ready to name Gase as their head coach but he wanted to see where Elway and the Broncos stood before making any type of a decision.

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I obviously cannot speak for Elway, but the Broncos should say good luck with the 49ers and move on from Gase. Maybe he’ll be a great head coach but there are too many questions, in my mind, about Gase and his ability to lead a football team.

Elway talked on Tuesday about a lot of things but two of the things that concerned him were the team’s preparedness and toughness. He also said he wants to see a team that goes down “kicking and screaming,” and Gase does not exhibit any of those qualities.

The offense that Gase is in charge of was terrible on Sunday; they constantly threw the ball down field and challenged the Indianapolis Colts best cornerback without success. A good offensive coordinator finds the weakness of any defense and attacks it. The Colts secondary is ripe for the picking on crossing routes and we did not see one. In addition, the Colts cannot cover the middle of the field to save their lives and the Broncos never attacked that area.

The Colts are also average at best in defending the run and the Broncos threw the ball over 40 times on Sunday. They lost by 11 but the game was never so far out of reach that the Broncos had to abandon the running game, but that’s exactly what they did. CJ Anderson was one of the few Broncos who showed up on Sunday and Gase refused to take advantage of that. The running game seems to be a foreign concept to Gase.

Gase seemingly has no concept of how the running game works or how to integrate it into his offense. When Elway approached Gase at midseason about the Broncos needing to run the ball, Gase asked Elway “Should I run it every play?” That’s not the kind of question you want to hear from your offensive coordinator, let alone your head coach.

As for Elway’s desire for a tougher football team that will rise to the mental challenges, as well as the physical ones. That doesn’t bode well for Gase either who runs a finesse offense that is easily defended by physical defenses.

It’s been a whole season now since the Super Bowl loss to the Seattle Seahawks and Gase still hasn’t adjusted to the blueprint that the Seahawks gave to the rest of the league. That was apparent again on Sunday. The Colts were defending what the Broncos were doing with a great deal of ease, and not once did Gase try something else. It was go route after go route. His inability to adjust as an offensive coordinator is not a good sign if he does become a head coach.

Sometimes game plans do not work and adjustments are needed during the course of a game, and Gase has never been able to do that.

Gase’s ability to put together a quality defensive staff would also concern me. He is still fairly young and I question how many connections he has. The Broncos defense is ready to be a dominant unit but they need an experience guy who believes in aggressiveness.

Then there’s the simply ability to lead men. Elway said in an interview on the Broncos website that he wants a coach with “championship experience” and that’s not Gase. Elway is also looking for a coach who understands the difference between getting to the Super Bowl and winning it. That’s not Gase either.

As I said maybe Gase will end up being the next great coach and maybe the Broncos will regret passing on him, but that’s exactly what they need to do.

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