Then this season happened. Now? Not so much. The jury is definitely still out on if Gase is the guy for the job.
All of the goodwill Gase earned last season has evaporated, and if Dolphins owner Stephen Ross is smart, he'll assess what his second-year coach has done through his 24 months on the job.
The Dolphins sit at 5-7 before tonight's game against the New England Patriots, with less than a 1 percent chance of making the playoffs for a second straight year. That's bad, but if you look at the season from 30,000 feet, the picture is so much worse than just another lost year.
Unfortunately, we must review Gase's resumé.
After losing Ryan Tannehill in training camp, Gase made the call to dangle a $10 million carrot in front of Jay Cutler to lure him out of retirement. Unfortunately, Cutler took the bait, and the result has been a dreadful season of watching him play like someone who was happy to be retired but was even happier to take one last payday. Cutler's 15-touchdown, 11-interception season has, like the Dolphins' record, been so much worse than it looks on paper.
Gase was supposed to be an "offensive guru" who was bringing innovation and creativity to the Fins' offense. He was supposed to be a "quarterback whisperer," yet he's been anything but. The Dolphins' offense ranks toward the bottom in almost every category and has a big fat "0" on the scoreboard more often than not. The offense has actually been downright impossible to watch at times.
It's been more of the same since Gase came to Miami. Fans expected more. They deserve more. If Gase brings nothing to the table on defense, he should at least be judged by how the offense performs. This year, the offense gets an F.
It's never a good thing when the Dolphins are on Good Morning America, but sadly, they made an appearance this season again, and it wasn't for their charity work in the community. On Gase's watch, a video emerged of offensive line coach Chris Foerster doing lines of cocaine on a workday at the Dolphins' facility.
If this had happened inside Foerster's home, it would be less of an issue for Gase, but the video was taken minutes before Foerster went into a meeting. It was an embarrassment for a Dolphins franchise that has had a string of embarrassments over the past decade. That's on Gase. For some reason, he got a pass for this. Joe Philbin wouldn't have been as lucky.
Bill Parcells used to always say, "You are what your record says you are." So far, Adam Gase is a 15-13 NFL coach with the arrow pointing in the wrong direction as far as momentum and hope go.
The Dolphins need a roster overhaul. Just about every spot on the team needs improvement.
