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We have mentioned myriad times in this space that Aaron Glenn has benefited this year from soft Jets’ coverage.
Maybe people are getting fed stuff off-the-record, and in return, they don’t want to bite the hand that is feeding them. Who knows.
But you know what, I’m not going to blame the Jets for this. Actually, they deserve praise for this.
If you can tame a historically tough New York media, good for you. One less headache to deal with during a difficult season for the organization.
But one narrative being pushed by surrogates in the media is that one reason the Jets have been blown out four games in a row is that they have been forced to play a lot of backups due to injuries.
Perhaps, but keep in mind, most teams have injury problems this time of year, like the team that blew out the Jets on Sunday.
The Patriots dominated the Jets on Sunday without starting LT (Campbell), starting LG (Wilson), two starting LBs (Spillane and Landry), two starting D-Linemen (Tonga and Williams), and two key WRs (Hollins and Boutte).
Not sure what the surrogates think about that or if they care.
But here is the bottom line – the Jets have a lot of issues right now, and many are not just related to injuries and playing a lot of young players.
And they need somebody like Rick Spielman to tell Woody how to fix this.
Having lawyers, financial analysts, and PR people involved probably won’t cut it as far as evaluating this situation. They have missed the playoffs 15 years in a row, and non-football people making football decisions is one of the reasons for that.
Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan has Tony Boselli working closely with him, and it looks like Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank is about to hire Matt Ryan to a similar role.
I’m not calling for anybody to lose their job. All I’m saying is the man in Woody’s ear, advising him about big football changes that need to be made, needs to be a football man, and Spielman, a two-time NFL GM, would be perfect.
If the Jets don’t stop having lawyers and financial advisors in Woody’s ear about football matters, the Jets’ playoff drought is likely to continue for a minute.
As the old saying goes, “You can’t keep doing the same things over and over again and expect a different result.” . . .
Glenn seemed to back off his comments after the game, questioning the players’ effort against New England.
“I mean you saw our guys running to the ball, you saw our guys making plays,” Glenn said on Monday. “Even when it got to a point where all they were trying to do was run the ball, our guys didn’t back down from that at all, and I would say that most of the time when that happens, I mean that’s when you have an effort issue.”
There wasn’t an effort issue.
The only possible issue was a player checking out of the game, after reaching an incentive bonus. That seemed to bother a teammate.
But he probably shouldn’t have been in the game at that point of a blowout anyway.
Jets don’t have an effort issue. They have talent and X’s and O’s issues, but not effort issues . . .
The Jets’ pass coverage over the last month has been atrocious, some of it due to injuries, some due to X’s and Os, some due to some players not being good enough.
They have had a cornerback named Nik Needham on their practice squad. He has been there since September 16.
He started 29 games for the Miami Dolphins during his six seasons there.
I’m not putting him in Canton, but you’re telling me a guy with this kind of experience can’t help them at all, in an area that is horrid right now?
Not sure what Glenn’s infatuation is with Jordan Clark, an undersized corner with 4.66 speed.
Undersized and speed-challenged usually aren’t an ideal combo in the secondary.
Not using Needham more makes little sense, unless there is something else at work here, which a lot of people have speculated about, something that starts with a “T.”
I won’t go there, but others have.
“The fact that we put Tyrod Taylor down and we didn’t start him let us know that the mission was to lose, competitive tanking,” said Bart Scott on SNY, a Jets media partner. “It wasn’t competitive, it was just tanking.”
Wow.
Glenn said last week before the Patriots game:
“I want to go win this game,” Glenn said. “The players want to go win this game. The coaches want to go win this game. That’s all we’re thinking about.”
December 29, 2025
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