With Ben Johnson having agreed to become the Bears’ next head coach, attention has now turned to his former Lions coordinator colleague Aaron Glenn. The latter will conduct a second interview with the Jets today, and he may soon have a deal in place. 
New York’s goal is to make it through today’s meeting without Glenn leaving the facility, Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reports. No agreement has been worked out yet, but achieving that objective would take Glenn off the list of remaining HC candidates. A second interview with the Saints is scheduled for tomorrow, but it is telling that the 52-year-old elected to speak with the Jets first.
As Rapoport’s colleague Mike Garafolo adds, Glenn spent part of yesterday speaking with assistants who may join him on his next staff. The presumed destination for that scenario was New York, another indication the team has landed on its preferred coaching candidate. If a deal is finalized, it will pave the way for a reunion in Glenn’s case.
The former Pro Bowler played 205 games in the NFL. The first 121 of those came with the Jets, and Glenn served as a full-time starter throughout his time with the team, earning a pair of Pro Bowl nods. Earlier in the hiring cycle, it became clear New York (along with New Orleans) represented a serious potential landing spot in the event he were to receive a head coaching opportunity. Glenn has never led an NFL staff, but it appears that will change shortly.
The Jets hired a highly-regarded defensive coordinator in 2021 when Robert Saleh was brought in. He remained in place through the midway point of the 2024 campaign, posting an overall record of 20-36 prior to his dismissal. Things did not go according to plan when DC Jeff Ulbrich was promoted to interim head coach, leaving some to expect an offense-oriented replacement would be brought in f0r 2025. If the Glenn hire goes through, though, the opposite will be true.
Glenn began his pro coaching tenure with the Browns, spending two seasons with the team before coaching the Saints’ defensive backs for five years. His first coordinator gig came with Dan Campbell and the Lions in 2021, and the team’s defense has improved in terms of points allowed every year since then. The Lions dealt with a slew of injuries from the regular season through to this weekend’s upset loss in the divisional round, but after ranking seventh in the NFL in scoring defense Glenn’s stock has not taken a hit.
ESPN’s Dan Graziano notes the Jets do not currently have any other in-person HC interviews scheduled. The same is also true of the team’s general manager vacancy, with Lance Newmark set to take part in his second interview today. Newmark’s career included a lengthy tenure in Detroit, and he has a strong relationship with both Johnson and Glenn. SNY’s Connor Hughes reports Newmark was expected to follow Johnson to the Raiders, but since that is not the case he is free to work with Glenn in New York. A hire on both fronts could happen as early as today.
With their coaching search seeming to be close to the finish line, here is a look at where things stand for the Jets:
- Bill Belichick, head coach (North Carolina): Showed interest; meeting never scheduled
- Joe Brady, offensive coordinator (Bills): To interview
- Brian Flores, defensive coordinator (Vikings): Interviewed 1/17
- Aaron Glenn, defensive coordinator (Lions): Interviewed 1/9; to conduct second interview 1/21; hire expected
- Brian Griese, quarterbacks coach (49ers): Interview declined
- Jeff Hafley, defensive coordinator (Packers): Interviewed 1/17
- Vance Joseph, defensive coordinator (Broncos): Interviewed 1/15
- Mike Locksley, head coach (Maryland): Interviewed 1/10
- Josh McCown, quarterbacks coach (Vikings): Interviewed 1/17
- Matt Nagy, offensive coordinator (Chiefs): Interviewed 1/8
- Ron Rivera, former head coach (Commanders): Interviewed
- Darren Rizzi, interim head coach (Saints): Interviewed 1/11
- Rex Ryan, former head coach (Bills): Interviewed 1/7
- Bobby Slowik, offensive coordinator (Texans): Interviewed 1/16
- Steve Spagnuolo, defensive coordinator (Chiefs): Interviewed 1/10
- Arthur Smith, offensive coordinator (Steelers): Interviewed 1/16
- Jeff Ulbrich, interim head coach (Jets): Interviewed 1/13; hired as Falcons’ defensive coordinator
- Mike Vrabel, former head coach (Titans): Interviewed 1/3; hired by Patriots
- Joe Whitt, defensive coordinator (Commanders): Interviewed 1/19
Bad decision for AG. Horrible, in fact.
I just hope he has a better ending than the last DC turned HC they wrecked- Saleh
Saleh at least lead a good D.
Thanks to Saleh- Not Woody
Yeah, not sure why the Jets keep on hiring defensive-minded HC when the problems have always been their offense. There’s a good chance this will turn out to be like their Saleh hire: a team with good D that can’t score enough to win.
The question is who will be the OC. Hard to imagine whoever it is will be worse than Hackett
If he gets $13M pr yr guaranteed like Ben Johnson is, not so bad to deal with Woody and his kids.
I might need more than that to deal with Brick and Jack…and the slightly less mature Woody.
Detroit is going to look different next year.
The Eagles lost both coordinators after the 2022 season and the team struggled in 2023,
leave it to the jets to make another stupid decision. If the jets fans thought their D took a step back last year, wait till next year
The Lions finished 20th in overall defense out of 32 teams in terms of yards allowed. 2023 they were worse. This was a madden game hire for the jets
Detroit’s rankings on defense …
2024: rush 5th, pass 30th, overall 7th
2023: rush 2nd, pass 27th, overall 23rd
Jets’ pass defense is stout, key is they’re mid-table at stopping the run.
Detroit was 20th in defense in 2024 not 7th
You see the injuries AG had to deal with? Context is important when presenting the numbers.
You have no clue what your talking about chief. The fact that the D finished as highly as they did was BECAUSE of AG. We were winning games with 3rd stringers and guys off of other teams practice squad to end the season. He did a fantastic job this year. Some fans don’t know s☆☆t but always talk like they do!
Only the Jets lol
The Saints apparently want him too, so no, not “only the Jets”
An incredible choice. A class individual who has shown he deserves the chance. Great choice for the Jets. Hopefully this ends any scenario where Rodgers returns.
People are forgetting that when Brad Holmes took over as GM and Dan Campbell as HC they tore the roster down to the studs and rebuilt it. Especially on the defensive side of the ball. Look what AG has done with 22 players on IR. He kept the defense ready to go. He played and coached under some great coaches. Pete Carroll, Bill Parcels, Dom Capers, Jack Del Rio, Sean Payton and of course Dan Campbell. He is ready for the challenge. Weather that’s in East Rutherford or New Orleans.
True. But would they at least consider Flores over AG? Flores has HC experience and has a better track record as a DC.
True, but after Flores’ flare-up with Ross, do we think that he’ll do better with an even more temperamental owner in Johnson? Glenn having a clean slate may end up as an advantage.
Hiring a guy who’s team just gave up 45 points to a rookie is such a Jets thing to do. As a Dolphins fan, their continued incompetence is the only thing that has given me joy the past 30 years.
Todd Bowles 2.0 incoming
i feel like this comment is a skin color thing and not about defensive schemes
i was never interviewed 🙁
Glenn likes to run a lot of man coverage and the Jets have good corners to do that so I like the fit from a defensive standpoint especially if they get a couple d-linemen and middle linebackers that can stop the run. But defense isn’t the Jets’ main issue. They need to finish building out the O-line, figure out what they’re doing at QB and find an offensive identity. There’s talent to build around on the roster but some glaring holes too.
This is so disappointing. Im not overreacting on their playoff loss with 2million injuries on defense, but i am so so so sick of my Jets going defensive HC.
Even if Glenn gives us a top 3 defense like Saleh did, we still miss the playoffs bc offense matters so much more in this league in 2025. If you look back at SB winning coaches lately its pretty much all offensive coaches and Bill Belichick. And even if the Jets somehow get lucky and the OC hire is great and we have a good year offensively, they just get poached for a HC gig bc other teams actually pay attention to the rule changes its back to your eventual rookie/young qb having multiple OC changes during their rookie contract.
A defensive coach winning the SB is becoming/is a statistical anomaly, idk why the Jets think theyre the ones who can be that anomaly
Rex has left the building
Shouldn’t the Jets hire a GM First and then the HC?
And how is this Glenn Cat any better than Saleh?
Strictly looking at the Numbers!!!!!!
SMH
Jets have openly stated that they were looking to either hire the GM or HC first, and then have their hired guy get their counterpart. That isnt the problem with this likely hire
As a Jets fan, this whole hiring cycle is tricky, because it didn’t feel like the head coach and GM were necessarily the biggest problems and it didn’t feel like there were any realistic candidates who would suddenly make me overflow with optimism. But I think Glenn at least makes sense. The idea of toggling back and forth between offensive and defensive coaches doesn’t really hold that much water, as the Jets can attest. Glenn has done solid work with very dicey personnel, he’s been a well regarded coach since New Orleans, and he was part of one of the greatest on field and cultural rebuilds in recent NFL history. They mostly could have done worse. Hopefully he can bring someone he can work well with from Detroit as GM.
The Jets havent toggled back and forth between offensive and defensive coaches tho? Almost every hire other than Adam Gase has been a defensive coach. Additionally, go look at the last 10-15 years worth of superbowl winning HCs and count how many of them are offensive and then subtract Bill Belichick for fun and count again to see if it matters
It doesn’t necessarily mean that it can’t be done. The team’s biggest problems this year (and since Woody came back) weren’t on the field, after all. Sure, they weren’t a championship caliber roster, but they had plenty enough to be competitive. Zeurlein tanking and Johnson taking a wrecking ball to the team did them in more than the capability on the field. It’s not impossible to think that Glenn could at least exceed that and do so in a better environment in a vacuum as a defensive coach.
No, the problem here is with ownership. As long Brick, Jack, and Woody are sabotaging staff and the locker room, it won’t matter whether a defensive or offensive coach is hired. The thing that New York has to weigh is not just the value of offense vs. defense, but the overall capability of the candidates at their disposal. Glenn might be a defensive guy, but if you trust him as a coach more than your other applicants in the running (like, say, Rex Ryan), then you have to go with him. It’s more about the man in that case than his background, and unfortunately the Jets aren’t at the top of the coaching choices right now.
I mean yeah, its not statistically impossible for a defensive coach to win a SB, but its currently and more often becoming a rarity for it to occur. Why the Jets think they can be the statistical anomaly beats me.
I mean I do agree they have to go for best candidate available. However, im arguing the best candidate available is never the defensive coach, at least in modern day football. The Jets didnt even try to go for Ben Johnson, the best offensive candidate this coaching cycle, and that should say they truly believe defense is the way, even though every rule change, the refs, etc. benefit offenses and historical analysis reflects that.
Saleh gave us a top 3 defense (3rd in points allowed in 2022) and the most wins we saw in one season was 7. Defense just doesnt move the needle as much as offense does. If the Jets had a top 3 offense the chances they miss the playoffs are so rare itd be like watching this years Bengals (who barely missed the playoffs)
Bowles to Gase to Saleh to an offensive coach would have been just that. And I don’t think Baltimore, Buffalo, and Detroit have exactly been held back by hiring head coaches who weren’t offensive play callers. If we’re not counting Belichick, might as well not count Arians or Reid either. Don’t get me wrong, all things being equal, I’d rather have a great offensive mind. But if that guy isn’t there, I’d rather try to hire like Houston or Arizona or Seattle did than reach for a third tier offensive mind.
Gase is the 1 coach of at least the Jets last 8-9 HC hires that was offensive, and by now we all know Gase was simply a total fraud. If you want to pretend offense or defensive coach doesnt matter in the grand scheme of the NFL because the Gase hire was a failure, you can again go count how many offensive HCs have won SBs in recent history and see how its heavily trending in favor of offensive minded HCs as time goes on. Additionally, in an article from Nov Wash Post in 2023, since 2002 teams with offensive head coaches have won 51% of games compared to those with defensive coaches. Im willing to bet those totals start to lean towards offensive coaches more and more as you get closer to today as well
Dan Campbells coaching history is full of offensive positions and he was an offensive player. Harbuagh was a ST coach but also comes from a much different era and is more well balanced than most. McDermott might be the rare exception, but just that, the rare exception.
And I said to not count BB to further highlight how unique and special BB was and how rare it is for a defensive coach to be successful in terms of SB wins, not that “oh dont count him because hes old” so im not sure what youre getting at by not counting Arians or Ried?
Given the way people on this site talk about him, I figured you meant Belichick was carried by Brady (which I think is nonsense). If you look at the last 20 Super Bowls, most of them were won by a team with Brady or Mahomes, who have a reasonable shot at going down in history as the two greatest quarterbacks in NFL history. To me, that 51% number is too close and noisy to be predictive. I also don’t think your dismissal of the Harbaugh counterexample is fair. The guy spent 20 years coaching special teams and defense before he got the head coach job. But hey, if you want to dismiss Campbell (who wasn’t even OC on a team where the HC was the offensive mastermind), then Dan Quinn is another example of a defense-first hire who looks awfully good for a team that needed a makeover.
Again, I say this as someone who would prefer an offense first guy all things being equal, but you don’t hire AN offense first guy just to hire one. If the best guy for the job isn’t from an offensive background, then you hire the best person to lead the next chapter. Is there an offensive coach you would have been champing at the bit to bring in? I’m still skeptical of Kingsbury, and I don’t think he or Coen is the best fit for this team.
(I say all this while agreeing with a lot of your perspective here.)
I dont think its exactly fair to label Harbaugh as anything other than a ST coach before becoming a HC. He held exactly 1 defensive position as DB coach before becoming HC,the rest are ST and a few offensive positions in college.
And yeah, sometimes defensive HCs can have a great offensive year… then their entire coaching staff gets poached and their offense has to go through adjusting/resetting all over again. We’re eventually going to get a young/rookie QB, and successful or unsuccessful theyre likely going to have to learn 2-3 new offenses before their rookie contract is up, and that is sometimes detrimental to their development
I think Kingsbury will have a better go around his 2nd time as a HC but needs a tad more seasoning in the environment hes in now. Ive liked what hes had to say about the possibility of being a HC again. As far as fit for the team goes, i’d rather have the team be built in the HC and GMs vision rather than them try to re-energize this demoralized bunch. Though i wouldnt be too mad at running it back with Rodgers, long term i couldnt care if this team fits them currently if that makes sense.
On your point of hiring an offensive guy just to hire one, i do agree that i’d rather Glenn than say, Arthur Smith or Matt Nagy, but i think probabilities of success favor offensive coaches. Meaning, youre more likely to find success going after a Ben Johnson than an Aaron Glenn. That doesnt mean that actually bad offensive coaches, like Gase, are better than someone like Glenn. A Glenn hire just screams we havent learned from the last 20 years.
Maybe not this cycle in particular but i like Coen, KK, i liked the idea of BFlo as i was seeing reports he’d bring in McCown as an OC, but obviously i wouldve want Ben Johnson most. We didnt even interview him
See? I agree in theory, but there just aren’t those candidates out there. I don’t particularly disagree with most of what you said, but there was zero chance of Ben Johnson going to the Jets. Zero. A guy with his pick of teams was not going to go work for that ownership and that quarterback situation after how this year played out. And while I like Flores, I don’t know why I should be confident McCown will be a strong play caller. If Glenn can bring in Kubiak, I’ll feel OK about that.
While there probably wasnt a chance we got BJ, the fact there wasnt even an attempt to get him is a problem. I’d be willing to bet Glenn and Vrabel were our top choices from the offset. Just philosophically off the mark
And there are just a ton of great reports about McCown, hes definitely up and coming
Old saying: Offense wins games. Defense wins championships
This poor SOB.
Sweet being the flavor of the week hot coordinator. There’s few times recently succesful team’s have had both OC n DC poached in same hiring period. Think Rams n Ravens. Got to re-tool your whole staff plus replacing any other position coaches who are leaving w/em. And then they become new coordintors. Pays like million bucks to call plays.
Aaron … Ben just got $13 million per year !