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Every year, in owner Leon Hess’ bio in the Jets media guide it started with the same sentence: “It all starts at the top.”
So why go after a guy who has no real power?
“(Brian Duker) is not particularly well-liked in the building,” said SNY Jets insider Connor Hughes on his podcast this week. “I’ve heard negative things from people who’ve talked to Jets staffers. Maybe he’ll start calling plays now, but he doesn’t really do anything. He was brought on to be Glenn’s assistant.”
Why go after Duker, who is a figurehead defensive coordinator who does not run the defense; Aaron Glenn does?
Is he low-hanging fruit?
And what does “he doesn’t really do anything” mean?
Obviously, he does a lot. Probably works seven days a week during the season. Film study, meetings, practice, and so forth – just like any other assistant coach.
On game day, Glenn calls the defensive plays, but that doesn’t mean Duker, “Doesn’t really do anything.”
Look, I’m not sitting here saying Duker is Bill Belichick.
The problem here is simple – making Glenn call the defense and manage the game was clearly a mistake. He obviously struggling to handle both jobs – being a coordinator and head coach. The proof is in the puddling. Some can handle both, like Andy Reid; others can’t, like Nick Sirianni. It’s a mixed bag. And to Glenn’s credit, he perhaps realized he shouldn’t do both jobs, and didn’t do it in his first year as Jets head coach, and then after Woody Johnson fired DC Steve Wilks, Glenn wanted to hire another veteran DC, but, according to published reports, was told by management he needed to do both jobs.
So to attack Duker here is a reach. This is Glenn’s defense.
I can’t imagine any defensive assistant coach, running any defensive meeting, involving any position, being popular or well liked right now, with how poorly this defense is playing. There are so many mistakes to point out in film sessions. Those are never comfortable moments.
“203 yards of 228 passing yards came after the catch,” NFL.com’s Brett Kohlmann said the Jets loss to the Chiefs. “How is that even possible?”
Can you imagine being in film study with players, breaking down all these plays with so many yards after the catch?
Was it Duker behind playing a bunch of 4-3 defensive linemen on a 3-4 line?
Highly unlikely. He doesn’t make personnel decisions.
Week after week, poor Jowon Briggs and Harrison Phillips, miscast in a 3-4 defense, struggled to get off blocks, and then the linebackers behind them getting engulfed by pulling linemen, who don’t have to double-team anyone up front.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
Briggs and Phillips are victims here. They are not built to do what they are being asked to do.
As is Duker. He was not a DC candidate any other place this off-season, but then got this job to assist Glenn and has the title, but he’s not the overload of this defense.
And Glenn probably shouldn’t be either.
His instinct was right when he first took the job.
Be a CEO head coach, alpha dog leader, and not call the defense.
Just lead the team and manage the games.
But that plan changed in January of 2026, and that hasn’t worked out well for the team or the coach.
Or Duker, for that matter, a young coach with little power, who is now collateral damage.
And let’s be honest, this job has not helped his resume moving forward.
Because whether it’s his fault on not, he’s on a defensive staff that is overseeing a porous defense.
Perhaps, in retrospect, he might regret ever taking this job. Just ask some of the coaches who were on the 2025 defensive staff who were all fired aside from Chris Harris.
Are guys like Aaron Curry, Dre Bly and Eric Washington even coaching anywhere this year?
Some gigs can hurt your resume.
Brutal business…
How did Chiefs’ running back, Kenneth Walker, who is one of their best players, not get covered on his 7-yard TD catch in the second quarter?
The brilliant mind of Andy Reid.
The Chiefs coach and offensive play-caller had trips left, in other words, three receivers lined up left. After the snap, all three players ran routes to the right, so many Jets coverage players went with them, and Walker, who was lined up in the backfield who looked like he was staying in to block, snuck out to the left flat and was wide open, and waltzed into the end zone.
“It was created by the formation,” said Chiefs radio analyst Danon Hughes (the pride of Bayonne).
Reid, a master offensive chess player, dialed up a lot of things to take advantage of the Jets’ proclivity to be very aggressive and get sucked in by eye candy.
You saw a lot of effective screens in the game by the Chiefs, and we all know that is a good way to counter an aggressive defense, given to blitzing…
Surprised the Jets didn’t trade Will McDonald if they were offered a second-round pick. That would have been a move that made a lot of sense, and they could have gotten out of the 5th-year option.
A decent situational pass rusher, who struggles against the run due to his size, if a second pick was indeed offered, surprised they didn’t jump on it.
November 11, 2026
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