Former Detroit Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn may have bitten off more than he can chew with the New York Jets, some league insiders believe.
Glenn was scooped up by the Jets after successfully building up a Super Bowl contending defense in Detroit, departing at the same time as offensive coordinator Ben Johnson following the 2024 season. While Johnson quickly built the Chicago Bears into a contender, Glenn struggled with a poor roster in New York and now faces what some believe is an even more dire outlook.
Aaron Glenn’s Dire Task in New York
Speaking to The Athletic’s Mike Sando, a league executive shared some deep concerns about the direction of the Jets — which the executive believes goes far beyond what Glenn can control.
“The Jets keep doing the same thing,” another exec said. “They trade good players off their team, they get draft picks, nobody wants to play there, they are a young team, they have to find a journeyman quarterback. Then they bring in all these picks, they can’t find a quarterback still, and then they trade all those players for more picks and still can’t find a quarterback.
“I would guess the owner is very involved with that thought process.”
But Glenn is getting at least some of the blame. Another executive told Sando that the Jets were “bringing in veterans to help the culture because Glenn could not do for the Jets what his old boss in Detroit, Dan Campbell, did for the Lions.”
There are at least some with a more optimistic view of Glenn, including an executive who believes he has the Jets close to turning a corner.
“They’ve done a good enough job supplementing their roster to where they don’t have a lot of glaring holes now, so they could move up or down in the draft,” another exec said. “Their roster is not bad. This should probably be the last free-agency period where they are really aggressive. You need to plan and budget like you are hitting on these draft picks.”
Lions Aiming to Return to Playoffs
The Lions suffered after losing both Glenn and Johnson, falling to 9-8 and missing the playoffs for the first time in three seasons. The team moved linebackers coach Kelvin Sheppard into Glenn’s old post, but the team struggled at times on defense.
As Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press noted, the team could be making some defensive changes for the upcoming season. Birkett noted that the Lions played more base defense than any other NFL team, but the loss of Alex Anzalone in free agency could force the team to take a different approach.
“Lions coach Dan Campbell said defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard has built three different ‘nickel’ packages into his defensive install for this spring, and which one the Lions use most will depend on their personnel,” Birkett reported.
The Lions could face some pressure from Johnson’s team, with the Chicago Bears winning the division last season and having a strong outlook with Caleb Williams under center.
Ex-Lions Coach Aaron Glenn Receives Dire Outlook With Jets