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New York Jets head coach Aaron Glenn speaking at the 2026 NFL Combine.
The New York Jets are coming off one of their worst seasons in franchise history in 2025. With that, NFL Insider Matt Lombardo said they’re the team under the most pressure ahead of the 2026 season.
“There’s a blend of uncharacteristic optimism and sudden pressure building simultaneously in Florham Park. For the first time, the heat is dialed up on general manager Darren Mougey, who, after an offseason that by all accounts raised the talent across the roster,” Lombardo wrote for “Between the Hashmarks.”
“However, Mougey faces a dual mandate of the Jets showing meaningful — if even incremental progress this season, while parlaying New York’s three first-round picks in next spring’s NFL Draft into a franchise quarterback capable of ushering in an era of sustained success,” Lombardo added.
“After all, the Jets’ offense in 2025 was anything but competent. Only the Cleveland Browns’ carousel of mediocre quarterbacks, the disjointed Tennessee Titans, and wholly dysfunctional Las Vegas Raiders averaged fewer than the Jets’ 263.6 yards per game, as New York’s 17.6 points per game weren’t just the third-fewest, but they failed to score 10 points three times last season,” Lombardo bluntly stated.
“Meanwhile, this is as much an evaluation season for embattled second-year coach Aaron Glenn, as anything else. Still, the Jets finished 24th in total defense last season while allowing 29.6 points per game, second most in the league. That’s suboptimal for a group coached by a supposed defensive mastermind,” Lombardo said.
Glenn didn’t call the defensive plays in 2025. That initial responsibility was given to veteran coach Steve Wilks. He was fired with three weeks left to go in the regular season. Chris Harris served as the interim defensive coordinator for that final stretch.
Even though AG didn’t call the plays, the blood was still on his hands. He is the head coach of the team, and when something goes wrong, that is his problem. Especially on defense, because a big reason he got the job in the first place was his prowess on the defensive side of the ball.
So it was a bad look if he was or wasn’t calling the plays, and it didn’t work.
In 2026, he will call the plays.
Former NFL scout and current analyst for NFL Network, Bucky Brooks, told me on “Boy Green Daily” that he liked Glenn’s decision to take fate into his own hands.
“If you want to get the job done right, you want to do it your way,” Brooks explained. “I think him taking the call sheet really matters.”
“AG is far more aggressive when it comes to the pressure and also in terms of trying to take away the layups on the perimeter by doing press coverage,” Brooks told me on the podcast.
NFL Network’s @BuckyBrooks likes that Aaron Glenn decided to call defensive plays for the #Jets in 2026:
“If you want to get the job done right, you want to do it your way … AG is far more aggressive when it comes to the pressure and also in terms of trying to take away the
Will Glenn succeed as the defensive play caller? Shoulder shrug.
If it ends up working out, Glenn put himself in the best position for that result to happen. He made that decision relatively early in the offseason. That gave him time to get the players he wanted to in free agency, on the trade market, and through the 2026 NFL draft.
He has had months to see what balancing the HC and DC roles is going to look like. That should put him in the best position to succeed at this job, but it doesn’t guarantee success.
Paul Esden Jr. covers the New York Jets for Heavy.com. A New York native, he co-hosts a morning show, "The Manchild Show with Boy Green Digital." Before joining Heavy in 2021, Esden Jr. covered both national and New York sports for FanSided, Elite Sports NY, and The Score 1260. More about Paul Esden Jr.
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