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With Mike Tannenbaum as a consultant, this pick should not come as a surprise.
NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport announced the Jets are meeting with head coaching candidate Aaron Glenn today and don’t want to let him out of the building.
Remember, the Jets hired Tannenbaum, who they fired as GM after the 2012 season, to help them find a new GM and head coach.
Tannenbaum was with the Jets from 1997-2005 in various roles, including GM from 2006-12.
Aaron Glenn played for the Jets from 1994-2001, so Tannenbaum and the former cornerback were together for five years with the Jets.
Also, when Tannenbaum was Jets’ GM, he had a strong working relationship with Glenn’s agent, Jimmy Sexton. I assume that the relationship is still strong. Sexton’s is now with the CAA leviathan, which represents coaches, GMs and broadcasters (that is why so many scoops to insiders emerge from there).
And both Glenn and Tannenbaum have strong relationships with Bill Parcells, who loved the cornerback and coached him with the Jets and Dallas Cowboys. Tannenbaum was Parcells’ cap guy when the legendary coach was with the Jets and he called him “Mr. T.”
This pick has Tannenbaum’s fingerprints all over it. I’m not saying that is a bad thing. If it works out, it’s clearly not a bad thing. We shall see.
Some thought the Jets’ interest might wane after Detroit’s defensive debacle against rookie QB Jayden Daniels in the Lions’ playoff loss to the Commanders.
“Aaron Glenn should hope some NFL owners went out to dinner tonight,” tweeted long-time sportscaster Mike Catalana during the Commanders-Lions game.
Fair or unfair, certainly other people felt the same way. How could they not?
“A dude in Aaron Glenn who is about to get a head coaching job, he didn’t know which way was up,” said SiriusXM sports talk host Patrick Meagher, a Detroit native and huge Lions fan. “He didn’t know his ass from his elbow because Jayden Daniels put so much pressure on a defense.”
And Meagher added, “[The Commanders]Â have one legitimate weapon in Terry McLaurin.”
Many have made the argument that a reason the Lion’s defense struggled was because of myriad injuries.
And there is no doubt they entered the game devoid of some key defenders, but injuries should never be an excuse, and in Glenn’s defense, he didn’t use that as a crutch.
But people in the Jets Universe need to get away from using injuries as an excuse.
The last regime made a lot of excuses.
As Tony Dungy likes to say, “No excuses, no explanations.”
I will never forget when former Jets coach Adam Gase said one off-season, “If we stay healthy, we should be in the conversation in December.”
My first thought when Gase said that was, “No, you gotta be in playoff contention even with injuries.”
I know he’s long gone, but the regime that followed him went down that same rabbit hole.
And it’s getting tiresome.
So if you want to cut Glenn slack because of injuries, go for it, but that thinking, moving forward, needs to go by the wayside at 1 Jets Drive. Injuries are never an excuse.
I have no skin in the game, if he is their choice, it is what it is, I will cover him fair and square, call balls and strikes.
It’s hard to evaluate Woody’s interview process because I was not in the room, so I have no idea what questions were asked in interviews and what they were looking for in a candidate. None. Often wondered what owners ask in these meetings.
But clearly Tannenbaum had a big influence.
Just one random thought to close, and this isn’t meant to be flippant, but if the Jets brass are big fans of Glenn, why isn’t he in the team’s Ring of Honor?
He might have been the best cornerback in team history, making three Pro Bowls.
Rapoport proclaimed this a “monumental day” for the Jets.
Time will tell.
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