“In the offseason, everybody is a champ”: Jets HC Aaron Glenn promises culture shift in New York

The New York Jets coach Aaron Glenn is aiming to change the losing culture this franchise has suffered through for decades. He shared a clear message for his team on Friday, telling Sports Illustrated:

“Listen, in the offseason, everybody is a champ.”

“Everybody is going to the Super Bowl. But, when the season starts, that really tells you who you are. So I tell our guys that we don’t have to talk. We don’t have to say anything. The only thing you have to do is get the work in,” Glenn said.

The Jets finished 5-12 in the 2024 season, and Robert Saleh was fired before that campaign concluded. Since 2010, the Jets have only experienced two seasons of .500 or better, going 8-8 in 2013 and 10-6 two years later.

Meanwhile, New York has not made the playoffs since the 2010 campaign, when they lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC Championship Game. They have experienced nine straight losing seasons.

“Everything that we are doing is going to speak for itself. That speaks volumes to me. That’s how loud you speak, by what your record says and how you play. We doing all this right now to make sure we get to that,” Glenn said.

Glenn is the third Jets head coach this decade.

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Aaron Glenn earning praise from his former boss

With season after season of disappointment, many people are understandably skeptical about the New York Jets being a successful team under defensive specialist Aaron Glenn.

His former boss, Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell, though, has plenty of confidence that the 52-year-old can turn the Jets around in his first stint as an NFL head coach.

“He’s an unbelievable leader, and he’s an even better person. He’s the type of guy who makes people rally around him and do things to help him have success,” Campbell told Pro Football Talk.

Glenn was hired as Campbell’s defensive coordinator with the Detroit Lions in January 2021. In 2022, the Lions were fourth in the NFL regarding turnover differential at +7.

Detroit, meanwhile, has made the post-season in each of the previous two campaigns, finishing with the best record in the NFC in 2024 (15-2) and making it to the NFC Championship Game in the 2023 season.

“Look, if he can’t, nobody can, that’s my opinion,” Campbell said.

Glenn takes over a Jets team that was strong defensively in 2024, finishing third in the league in yards allowed per game (313.8).