After a spree of rumors, Aaron Glenn is signing up to lead the Jets. The parties have a deal in place, ESPN.com’s Adam Schefter reports. This will bring the former Jets first-round pick back to New York. Glenn’s hire is now official, per a team announcement.
Bovada’s Josina Anderson reported earlier today Glenn had informed the Lions he would be leaving for New York, barring a snag. No snag ultimately took place, and Glenn will cancel his second Saints interview to take over as the next Jets HC. News developed Tuesday that Glenn had become the Jets’ favorite, and the team is believed to have offered a substantial deal to entice the former cornerback. This will be a five-year agreement, per Schefter.
Glenn, 52, spent the past four seasons leading Detroit’s defense and had been on the past three coaching carousels — despite the Lions not impressing statistically on that side of the ball until this season. Glenn managing to keep the Lions a top-10 defense this season, after Aidan Hutchinson‘s season-ending injury occurred in Week 6, burnished his HC credentials, and the Jets will be the team that commits to the veteran assistant.
Lions quarterbacks coach Mark Brunell — a Jets Mark Sanchez backup in the early 2010s — has been linked as a potential OC option, while NFL.com’s Mike Garafolo pinpoints Steve Wilks as a “strong” DC candidate. Wilks had come up as a Jets option Tuesday, as the Glenn-to-New York buzz circulated, and resurfaced on the DC carousel earlier this month. Glenn has been linked to wanting an experienced DC option, which is interesting since that is his side of the ball, and Wilks would match that description. The former Panthers interim HC also led the Cardinals for a season and served as the defensive play-caller for the 49ers and Panthers as well.
The Jets chose Glenn 12th overall in 1994, Pete Carroll‘s lone season as their HC, and he stayed with the team for eight years. Glenn became a Pro Bowler with the Jets under Bill Parcells, helping their 1998 team reach the AFC championship game. The Jets later left Glenn exposed in the 2002 Texans expansion draft, where he was selected. After Glenn played eight more NFL seasons to stretch his career to 16 years, he returned as a Jets scout. More than a decade later, the team — despite having hired a defensive coach (Robert Saleh) in 2021 — will turn to him at a critical point. Parcells helped vouch for Glenn with the Jets’ Mike Tannenbaum-led search committee, Fox Sports’ Peter Schrager notes.
Earlier this month, the Jets made a late push for Mike Vrabel. But the ex-Patriot chose an offer to return to New England. Glenn, who intercepted 24 passes with the Jets, now returns to the Big Apple to help a team likely to begin a transition. The Jets are expected to release Aaron Rodgers, though the future Hall of Famer is not 100% out the door just yet. That said, Rodgers is not committed to even playing in 2025. Meanwhile, Glenn will head up a Jets defense that still features some young talent. The longtime secondary coach will get to work on mentoring Sauce Gardner, while his OC hire will be vital as the Jets likely search for a young quarterback after several recent misses.
New York has not enjoyed a steady quarterback presence since Glenn’s playing tenure, when the team crafted a Vinny Testaverde-to-Chad Pennington baton pass. Several draft choices have missed, and the Rodgers trade backfired, with the 2024 team somehow winning fewer games with the ex-Packers legend than Saleh’s 2022 and ’23 squads did with Zach Wilson at the helm. Woody Johnson‘s decision to fire Saleh after five games also proved the wrong call, as interim leader Jeff Ulbrich — who has since left to become the Falcons’ DC — did not generate a boost.
This is Johnson’s first HC hire since Todd Bowles in 2015. The oft-criticized owner had been part of Donald Trump’s first presidential administration, as ambassador to the United Kingdom, when the Jets hired Adam Gase and then Saleh. Johnson bought the Jets during Glenn’s playing tenure, but his reputation has steadily worsened since — with some hits coming recently. Johnson has been accused of meddling on a regular basis, to the point Madden ratings and his sons’ involvement in decisions and presences in the locker room have come under fire. Glenn is not walking into the most stable situation, but his history with the organization probably played a significant role in him signing on.
Vrabel being turned off by Johnson’s presence came up during this search, and the Jets were not expected to receive an audience with Glenn colleague Ben Johnson. Ex-Glenn Lions coworker Lance Newmark, however, has been closely linked to coming over from Washington — where he has served as assistant GM over the past year — to lead the Jets’ front office. It would be Newmark who would be positioned to work more closely with Johnson compared to Glenn. That partnership did not end well for Joe Douglas, who lost respect for the owner and lobbed anonymous criticism his boss’ way as his tenure progressed.
These developments, along with the quarterback matter, may raise the degree of difficulty for Glenn. The Lions, however, completed this decade’s premier rebuild effort after climbing from 3-13-1 to the NFC championship game in a two-season span. Detroit followed that up with a 15-2 record this season. The Lions’ divisional-round loss allowed for Johnson (Bears) and Glenn to be hired this week, as opposed to the No. 1-seeded team’s top assistants potentially needing to wait until after Super Bowl LIX to be appointed — like the Eagles’ coordinator duo two years ago.
Glenn helped develop Hutchinson, and safeties Brian Branch and Kerby Joseph made substantial leaps under the former secondary coach this season. This came after Glenn helped groom the likes of Marshon Lattimore and Marcus Williams in New Orleans.
The Lions, however, ranked 31st, 28th and 23rd defensively in Glenn’s first three seasons; their defense collapsed in a loss to the 49ers in last season’s NFC championship game. Glenn helped generate a rebound this year (seventh), and his defenses never finishing above 19th in yards allowed did not impede his candidacy.
As the Lions will need new coordinators and potentially some new position coaches, depending on who Johnson and Glenn take with them, the Saints lost one of their finalists. New Orleans still has Mike Kafka and Anthony Weaver second interviews scheduled. But Glenn came up in every HC-needy team’s search this offseason. He met with five teams, declining a Patriots interview as it became clear Vrabel was heading to Foxborough.
While the Saints refocus, the Jets have landed one of the bigger names available as they attempt to end what has become by far the NFL’s longest active playoff drought (14 seasons). The Lions will obtain two future third-round picks because of Glenn’s hire, due to the Rooney Rule.
Defensive coordinator Steve Wilks and special teams coordinator Chris Banjo were in place by the end of January, but it took a few more weeks to finalize their staffs. Several of the Jets’ position coach hires have already been reported, but the team has since added several assistants.
