Adam Gase has no excuse not to deliver Jets glory

As training camp approaches next week, Post NFL columnist Steve Serby looks at the biggest characters in the world of the Jets and Giants.

The Jets’ dream of course, is Adam Gase showing up in his second crack at head coach as Sean McVay.

It is probably an improbable dream, because McVay is in a league of his own — except when he encounters Bill Belichick in a Super Bowl. But there is a case for Gase to succeed, even if he isn’t McVay:

McVay inherited a young franchise quarterback in Jared Goff; Gase inherits a young franchise quarterback in Sam Darnold.

McVay hired a respected veteran defensive coordinator in Wade Phillips; Gase hired a respected veteran defensive coordinator in Gregg Williams.

McVay inherited a franchise running back in Todd Gurley; Gase now has a franchise running back in Le’Veon Bell.

McVay was immediately compatible with general manager Les Snead; there was friction at the end between Gase and Dolphins owner Stephen Ross. Jets owner Christopher Johnson will stay out of Gase’s way. Gase, fire to Todd Bowles’ ice, was not immediately compatible with Mike Maccagnan, but sounds as if new GM Joe Douglas is his kind of partner.

Gase (23-25) was certainly no McVay in Miami, and now we get to find out if Ryan Tannehill, who missed 25 games with injury — on a team that lost 13 players to season-ending surgery last season — was a major reason why the Dolphins never ranked higher than 24th in points scored.

Gase’s mandate: Just win, baby — even if Johnson refuses to issue a playoff mandate.

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The burden of proof will be on Gase to be this driven, innovative leader of men who has wowed Peyton Manning.

For whatever reason, he was not a leader of all men with the Dolphins. To wit: Receiver Jarvis Landry was traded to the Browns and charged that Gase, who had control over the 53-man roster, didn’t appreciate him asking to expand his route tree.

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“When I’d go to talk to [Gase] about it, he’d curse me out,” Landry told Sports Illustrated. “ ‘Why are you telling me how to do my job?’ It got to the point where the environment was just awful.”

Many other players, including Tannehill, felt differently about Gase, who should be motivated to learn from his mistakes in his second chance because few head coaches — Pete Carroll, Norv Turner, to name two — get a third chance.

Johnson — and Maccagnan, bless his heart — were obsessed with getting Darnold a quarterback whisperer and departed from the organization’s history of hiring defensive assistants with no head-coaching experience.

Johnson firing Maccagnan following free agency and the draft, after saying when he fired Bowles when the season ended, “I think Mike is a good talent evaluator, period. Looking at the plan we have going forward, I’m a believer in Mike,” was another example of Same Old Jets dysfunction.

The dysfunction will be long forgotten as long as Gase wins. If he wins — with Maccagnan’s players — and if he and Douglas, who will have the final say, turn out to be a front office Dream Team, then Johnson will wind up on his feet.

There are no excuses for Gase not to win here. He doesn’t have a complete team, he still has to hunt down the Patriots, but he has a lot more pieces in place than he did in Miami, starting with Darnold.

“If you make it here,” Johnson said before his coaching search began, “you’re a freaking legend.”

Adam’s Apple.