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Aaron Glenn is a born leader of men.
His leadership skills have been on full display in Florham Park since his arrival on January 22, 2025.
You could see his leadership skills in his introductory press conference and throughout the spring and summer in practices.
I’m sure he’s a great leader in team meetings at 1 Jets Drive, but I’m not privy to those, so I can’t get too much into that. But you’d have to assume his leadership in that environment is superb.
To use a horrible sports cliche – he comes across as a coach players would “run through a brick wall” for.
And in press conferences, he also shows great leadership, having his players backs every step of the way.
I don’t think reporters would “run through a brick wall” for him – lol.
But that isn’t who he’s charged with leading.
And when you are constantly clapping back at the media over any questions that might question your players, those players, once again, will “run through a brick wall” for a coach that loyal.
But here is where he could eventually run into an issue.
It’s great to have your players back, and Glenn’s leadership and motivational skills are superb, however, you can only will certain players so far.
In other words, you’re belief in somebody, can only improve their skill set a little, perhaps, or maybe not at all.
There is no doubt that all the players will play hard for this great motivator, but great motivation isn’t magic that will make every player better than they are.
And you can push back at negative questions about certain players’ perceived shortcomings, but that will only work for so long, especially with real games starting, if the perceived issues from the past, once again, rear their ugly heads in the games that count.
Like you can tell the media that a defensive end is good at setting the edge against the run, but it wasn’t the case last year, and if it’s not the case in the real games this year, eventually, you will not be able to defend him. You could hurt yourself in the locker room with other players if you are saying that publicly about a player they aren’t seeing on the film.
If a QB is struggling as a passer, Glenn can try to sell the fact that it’s not a passing league, but a running league. If the QB struggles with consistency and progressions scans in the passing game in real games, it’s going to be hard for Glenn to keep acting like the media is a bunch of haters.
The point is simple.
The guy is an unbelievable leader.
The leader the Jets need at this time in history.
But great leadership doesn’t come with a magic wand that you can wave over players, that will make them better than they are.
And the media isn’t wrong about everything. A lot of things, but not about everything, so you can only gaslight them for so long, and try to stave off the critics by acting like they don’t know what they are looking at.
Not predicting any failure for any player this year. The team is 0-0. But Glenn has to know his incredible leadership skills aren’t going to make every player he believes in better than they are.
A number of the anointed players, who were held out of the last preseason game because they are considered valuable, have a lot to prove.
August 28, 2025
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