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Last week, after the Jets’ loss to Green Bay, SNY’s Connor Hughes, one of the top NFL insiders in the New York market, tweeted, “I think Aaron Glenn has exceeded all expectations calling the defense. This is not a particularly talented unit and he has them playing really, really good ball.”
We wrote in response to this September 23: “Before we go too crazy with the praise of the defensive coaching, let’s see what they do in Detroit and Chicago the next two weeks. In Week 1, they faced QB Cam Ward, who needs work, and then in Week Two, they faced a Green Bay team that lost their right tackle on the first series, and then their left guard shortly thereafter. They also lost one of their best receivers, Jayden Reed, on the first series.”
The Jets defense struggled in Detroit. They gave up 131 yards rushing and several big plays in the passing game, including a game-winning TD pass to Jahmyr Gibbs where the running back was uncovered in the right flat.
“I’m not sure how you don’t have Jahmyr Gibbs covered in a situation like that – he should be your #1 priority,” said Fox’s Drew Brees. “It looks like a bit of a blown coverage because I don’t see how you leave their best player wide open in the flat.”
So while Glenn is doing a solid job as DC when you look at the 3-game composite, you could also argue the Jets didn’t step up to the challenge against the best offense they faced this year last Sunday.
And this week, they face perhaps one of the top three offensive minds in football in Chicago’s Ben Johnson, an elite offensive play-caller, who got he better of one of the NFL’s top defensive coordinators, Philadelphia’s Vic Fangio, on Monday Night Football, in Chicago’s blowout win over the Eagles.
Let’s see how Glenn’s defense does this week, in their second big challenge of the year, and then we will have a month of evidence, and perhaps we can discern better whether he has “exceeded all expectations calling the defense.”
They often say teams view NFL seasons in quarters . . .
The Jets’ pass protection the last couple of weeks has been inconsistent. Jets QB Geno Smith was sacked four times against Green Bay, and five times against Detroit.
And it just occurred to me what one of the problems might be.
Jets right guard Joe Tippmann said on Wednesday, “[Geno] won’t bail out of there.”
Tippmann was complimenting Smith for staying in the pocket a little longer than some, going through his reads, and trying to find an open guy.
Think about last season, when the Jets had three QBs, Justin Fields, Tyrod Taylor, and Brady Cook, all players that tended to bail from the pocket at the first sign of pressure, run around and play street-yard ball, making plays with their feet, either running around behind the line looking for a receiver to flash open, or scrambling.
Now they are blocking for a guy who will hang in the pocket longer than what they got used to last year.
Not making any excuses for the Jets O-Line, which must play better, but just trying to offer some critical analysis on something that might be contributing to the “pass pro” issues . . .
A surprising pass protection issue from last week was the issues Jets left tackle Olu Fashanu had with Lions defensive end D.J. Wonnum, who beat him for two sacks.
Wonnum had no sacks in the Lions’ first two games. A journeyman who has played for the Minnesota Vikings and Caroline Panthers before signing in Detroit this offseason for not a lot of money, he had 30 sacks in his first seven seasons, for an average of 4.3 per season.
Look, he’s a decent player, but the issues he gave Fashanu were a little bit shocking.
But as the old saying goes, “Different horses for different courses.”
This league is so about matchups (that is why analytics data can sometimes be misleading).
For some reason, Wonnum’s style of play and his skill set gave Fashanu issues.
It’s kind of like baseball, where you sometimes see an average hitter for some reason have the number of a really good pitcher . . .
People have been very hard on Jamien Sherwood for his pass coverage in Detroit, but believe it or not, I’m not one of them. Were there a couple of rough plays? Sure, but I’m going to cut him a little slack on the pass coverage front. Not to belabor that point, but the substandard run defense by the D-Line hurt the linebackers in coverage due to Goff’s ability to sell play-action passes so easily, opening big passing lanes.
Once again, not saying Sherwood and Demario Davis had the best game in pass coverage, but man, where they got hurt by the D-Line getting dominated against the run, often up the middle . . .
Aaron Glenn said tight end Mason Taylor is “week-to-week” with a thumb injury, but seeing him today on the practice field with a brace on his right hand, he certainly doesn’t look like a player who will suit up this week.
October 1, 2026
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