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After the Jets hired Aaron Glenn as their head coach in January, 2025, team consultant Mike Tannenbaum said:
“Aaron, this guy checked every box. He never took a shortcut. He’s worked hard. He succeeded at everything he’s done. Of course, knowing him certainly makes it a little bit easier, but if you look at it objectively, he has paid his dues every step of the way.”
Tannenbaum, a former Jets GM, has a consulting firm – “The 33rd Team” – an agency the Jets hired to help them vet head coach/GM candidates in late 2024, into early 2025.”
Obviously, that process led to the hiring of Glenn and GM Darren Mougey.
On Monday, we talked about Mougey’s strong off-season (on paper), so you could argue he has moved up the growth curve some in his second year as GM.
So what does Glenn need to move up the growth curve as an NFL head coach in Year Two?
The line Tannenbaum used after Glenn’s hiring – “This guy checked every box,” got me thinking – what boxes does the coach need to improve to take that next step as a head coach?
Like a lot of new head coaches, the game management could stand some improvement.
In the Jets-Jags game, a 48-20 Jets loss late in the season, on the Jets’ first possession, they had a fourth-and-1 on their own 44 and went for it, and Breece Hall lost six yards on fourth down.
“That was stupid,” Jags radio analyst Jeff Lageman said after the play. “Aaron Glenn made a poor decision with a rookie QB (Brady Cook).”
Six plays later, the Jags were in the end zone and up 14-0.
Against New England, also in December, another blowout loss, the Jets attempted two fake punts on the same series – the first one worked, the second failed.
Attempting two fake punts on one series is something some would consider rather unusual.
So you could make a strong argument that there is some room for improvement for Glenn’s game management in Year Two.
Now, he did have a coach in the booth helping him with game management – Jon Berger, but unless you are on the headset, you just don’t know what Berger advised him to do (like on the two aforementioned scenarios), and what Glenn decided to do.
You see, even if a coach has a game management coach, it’s ultimately his decision what to do on a given play, regardless of the advice.
Berger returns for his second season, and you could argue that it might be best for Glenn to cut back on the riverboat gambling, like going for it on his own 44, early in the own game, and take a more conservative approach, especially with a team this year that will likely need to win close games, with a game manager at QB. So perhaps it’s better to play a field position game.
Another area Glenn needs to improve is in his wheelhouse: fixing the Jets’ defense, which was broken last year. He will take that over this year and be the de facto defensive coordinator, even though Brian Duker has the title.
So those are two boxes for sure that need to be checked better by Glenn this upcoming season.
July 7, 2026
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