When Aaron Glenn was hired as the Jets’ head coach earlier this year, one of the things many people noted was that he was part of a major turnaround in Detroit as the Lions’ defensive coordinator under Dan Campbell.
The Lions went 0-10-1 to open Campbell’s first season, but closed with a 3-3 record and went 9-8 in 2022 to kick off an extended run of success in Detroit. Glenn reflected on that experience during a Wednesday press conference to explain why it’s vital that he and the Jets stay the course in the face of an 0-4 start to the season.
“It was tough to go through, but man, you just make sure that you lean on those things, those positives that you see within the games that you play, and you still try to make sure it is a play style that you’re trying to create within your team that we saw happening at that point, and we just knew at some point it was going to break through, and once it broke through, man, we were just rolling,” Glenn said, via a transcript from the team. “Listen, I feel the same way about here, and I understand how the fans feel, I do, I’m hurting just like they are. I understand how you guys feel; I’m hurting just like you are. But I do know this, I believe in everything that we’re doing, and I know that there’s going to be a breakthrough, and when it breaks through, this thing is going to pop exactly like we all want it to.”
Glenn is the fourth new head coach the Jets have hired since their last playoff trip and the previous three all had moments when they said they believed that their approach would flip things for the franchise. They weren’t able to get that done, which will make for some skepticism about Glenn’s ability to do so until there are tangible signs that it’s happening.
