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I stumbled upon an article the other day while I was researching something else for the latest issue of the magazine, that came out today.
The story was by a legendary long-time NFL writer, Judy Battista, for NFL.com from January 30, 2026.
It took people behind the scenes of the process leading up to the hiring of Aaron Glenn as head coach.
Interesting stuff.
Hindsight is 20-20, so this isn’t about second-guessing anything. Hey, Glenn certainly could turn it around moving forward after a tough first year. Hiring Frank Reich, four picks in the top 44, and plenty of cap space, perhaps the Jets will take a positive leap in the coach’s second year.
But I had never seen this article before. Battista does a good job of getting into the weeds of the Jets’ thought process that led to the hiring.
Battista spoke to most of the key figures in the decision to hire Glenn – Woody Johnson, Christopher Johnson, Hymie Elhai, and Mike Tannenbaum. Ira Axselrad was not intervied, at least on the record.
Early in the story, Tannenbaum relayed a fascinating anecdote from early in the process. He asked legendary coach Bill Parcells who he’d be thinking about hiring if he were the Jets.
“I’d start with Aaron Glenn,” Parcells told Tannenbaum.
That was an interesting suggestion.
The interesting part was not that he would bring up Glenn’s name up as a potential head coaching candidate at the time. Glenn was a name that was being bandied about as a candidate by teams at the time.
The interesting part was that he said he’d “start” with Glenn.
While Glenn was a strong candidate after the job he did with Detroit’s defense for four years, there were a multitude of really good candidates – coordinators, former head coaches, college coaches, and so forth- that “starting” with Glenn seems a little strong.
Glenn’s resume was good, but not necessarily the best one in terms of the candidates available.
In the article, you got a lot of insight into how extensive the interviewing process was. Remember, it went in from quite some time, and they interviewed myriad candidates.
“Most NFL searches are conducted like speed dating,” wrote Battista. “Background checks might be done furtively, before the sitting head coaches and general managers are dismissed. Much of the work, including interviews, is jammed into a few weeks that start at the end of the regular season, when most outgoing coaches and general managers are fired. The Jets made good use of the extra time they had, doing critical background checks before they were able to start talking to candidates.”
“This is a modern process, whether you’re looking for a president of Harvard or a coach,” Woody Johnson said.
Christopher Johnson, who spearheaded the search that led to the hiring of Robert Saleh, said the process that led to Glenn was much more extensive.
“It wasn’t anywhere near as thorough,” Christopher Johnson said.
Christopher also told Battista: “This has been the best process. I’ve been through a few of these — this feels different to me. We really didn’t cut any corners. We went the extra mile.
“We feel like the others didn’t really work,” Elhai said. “It took some moments of self-reflection to think about things, how we can improve it and do it differently.”
Through the extensive process, Woody feels a “winning candidate” clearly emerged.
“One thing about this process is, the winning candidate emerges,” Woody Johnson said. “I didn’t know at the beginning who would emerge. He emerged, and by the end – they all were very talented — one was more appropriate and better for the New York Jets. That’s the one we picked.”
February 23, 2026
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