As daunting a task as turning the New York Jets around seems, new head coach Aaron Glenn is making one thing abundantly clear from the get-go: The Jets you know will soon be extinct.
“Put your seatbelts on and get ready for the ride,” Glenn said during his introductory press conference. “We’re the freaking New York Jets, and we’re built for this s—t.”
Outside of Adam Gase, though, how many times have we seen a new head coach come into this town and win his introductory press conference? There has always been the promise of climbing out of the doldrums, destroying dysfunction, and teasing glory.
Ten years ago, Todd Bowles said he was working on getting his Super Bowl rings in New York. He never made the playoffs
Robert Saleh promised “all gas” and “no brakes.” Instead, the brake lines were cut, and the gas ran out.
So, it would be understandable why many people could take Glenn’s comments with a grain of salt. This is his first head-coaching job, and he will be tasked with navigating a team out of a 14-year-long playoff drought, which has heaped further misery on a franchise mired in a 56-year Super Bowl drought.
But the 52-year-old Glenn has become a specialist, of sorts, in turning putrid teams around.
As a player, his arrival and rise to stardom helped lead the defense of a Jets team that went from 1-15 in 1996 to 12-4 with an AFC Championship Game appearance two years later, where they blew a 10-0 halftime lead to the Denver Broncos.
“I’ll be damned if I’m not gonna come back here and get that back,” Glenn said. “That’s one of the reasons why.”
One of his earliest lessons in being a successful coach came from Bill Parcells, the man who led those late ’90s Jets teams.
“Bill Parcells came in and totally brought a different mentality and different people,” Glenn said. “To me, that really changed the culture. Here’s what I learned: I can stand in front of a group of men and can give as many rah-rah speeches as I can. But culture is about people and getting the right people in the building. I saw that first-hand with Bill Parcells. That’s why the turnaround was so fast.”
As a defensive coordinator, he transformed a hapless Detroit Lions unit into a force. The NFC North franchise went from just three wins in 2021 to an NFC Championship Game appearance last year and a 15-2 record with a division title this year.
“I know sustained success, and that’s what we’re looking for,” Glenn said. “I’ve lived it. It’s going to take hard work, it’s going to take dedication, it’s going to take us as coaches to teach and continue to teach. The small things about this game is what really wins games. The smartest teams win games. Situational awareness wins games. It’s our job as coaches to do that.”
It made him one of the hottest commodities on the head-coaching market this winter, and he earnestly wanted to come to the Jets.
“This is where I started,” Glenn said. “You can’t write a better story than that. This was my start for a number of situations: As a player, as a scout, and now as a head coach. You can’t write that story no better than that. Hopefully, this will be my last stop. That’s how I’m looking at it.”
Blind passion is one thing. A track record to take that passion and funnel it toward contributing to a winning football team is another. Glenn has proven that in every facet of his football life.
Doing so with the Jets now would be his greatest work yet.
