On the eve of Sam Darnold’s Super Bowl debut, the coach who oversaw his infamous “Seeing Ghosts” performance is closing in on an NFL return.
Per Matt Zenitz of CBS Sports, Gase “has emerged as a possibility to be hired by the #Chargers in an offensive assistant coach role.” It would be Gase’s first NFL job since the Jets fired him after the 2020 season, primarily due to his failure to develop the aforementioned Darnold.
Gase has been off the grid since his tenure in New York ended. The closest he has come to the NFL news cycle is when he was spotted at Denver Broncos training camp in 2025, although not in an official capacity.
Broncos head coach Sean Payton stated that Gase was “not helping in any capacity…coached here a long time, is a valuable resource and has seen a lot of football.”
Should Gase join the Chargers’ staff under head coach Jim Harbaugh, Los Angeles would have two of the last three head coaches of the Miami Dolphins on their staff. The Chargers tabbed Mike McDaniel, who was fired as the Dolphins’ head coach after four seasons, as their offensive coordinator.
Gase had served five consecutive seasons as an NFL head coach before his five-year absence. He coached the Dolphins from 2016-18, posting a 23-25 record, before coaching the Jets from 2019-20, where he went 9-23.
As Darnold prepares for a Super Bowl appearance, five seasons after his struggles under Gase prompted the Jets to trade him, Gase and those 2019-20 Jets teams have reemerged as a topic of conversation over the past two weeks. Darnold himself has been pressed about those times, and the USC product declined to place any blame on outside parties for his failures.
“The days in New York, the days in Carolina – those were part of my journey, and they’re part of my experience – and I loved every single part of it,” Darnold said in an interview with Dan Patrick.
Speaking about what has changed for him since his time with the Jets, Darnold pointed to his mental toughness.
“Just being able to handle it, at this point in my career, too, even mentally, I feel like I handle it differently, internally, than I used to,” Darnold stated. “I realize that it is a part of the journey, and it is a part of who I am.”
Darnold explained that in his early years as an NFL quarterback, he would dwell on mistakes more than he does currently.
“I think, like, I gave [mistakes] a little more thought than I had to,” Darnold said. “I paid a little more attention to it. I guess I invested a little more thought into what happened in the past. ‘Ok, I threw this pick against this coverage, back in 2019, [so, I would tell myself], I’m not going to do that again.’
The Chargers are scheduled to visit Seattle in 2026. If Los Angeles closes the deal with Gase, he will meet his former franchise quarterback for the first time since their time together in New York.
