AP

This year’s hot candidate is an offensive coordinator with no head-coaching experience at any level. So why has Adam Gase become the belle of the ball?

Because the guys looking for coaches are looking for someone with no ego. Someone who will come in and not try to take over. Someone who, for example, was able to coexist in Denver with a quarterback who wanted to run the offense. Someone who, for example, was more recently able to coexist in Chicago with a quarterback who seemed aloof and disinterested.

Whether it’s Howie Roseman in Philadelphia, Mike Tannenbaum in Miami, Jerry Reese in New York, or whoever ultimately will be calling the shots in Cleveland (I’d add Trent Baalke in San Francisco if the 49ers hadn’t already passed on Gase in 2015), Gase apparently has managed to persuade each of them that he has no agenda other than to coach, and that his ability to forge partnerships with personalities as diverse as Peyton Manning and Jay Cutler means that Gase can forge a partnership with his General Manager and/or executive V.P. of football operations.

The stated goal of each coaching hire is to consider the best interests of the team. The unspoken disclaimer is that the folks who stand to lose power or authority are thinking about their own best interests. Gase is hot in the current hiring cycle because the current hiring cycle is conducive to candidates who will stay in their lane.

Whether he will or won’t, multiple executives apparently think Gase will. Which makes him the most likely candidate in the current cycle to get a job.