FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — The celebration was unassuming. There was a desk with two chairs behind it, flanked by a fake potted plant and a lectern. Behind the desk, on the wall, was a projector screen. The last time the New York Jets had a press conference here, it showed Green Bay Packers highlights, moments from Aaron Rodgers’ career. This time it was blank — though it would have been easy to pull together a celebration of a purebred Jet, returning home.
Rodgers’ introduction in the spring of 2023 was full of then-current coaches and teammates. Monday’s event featured former Jets, some of them returning to the team’s facility for the first time in decades, there to see Aaron Glenn. A handful of his former teammates, like Wayne Chrebet, Dennis O’Sullivan and Glenn Foley, sat in the front row. Others who never played alongside Glenn showed up too, like Nick Mangold, Damien Woody and Tony Richardson. It felt like a family reunion, a prideful show of support for a franchise that, for too long, has been the target of derision and mockery (much of it earned).
When Glenn stood at the lectern and made his first public comments as the Jets head coach — after owner Woody Johnson and new general manager Darren Mougey made their own — he put on a pair of glasses, like a teacher getting ready to start a lesson.
“Yeah,” he said, laughing, “I wear glasses now.”
Head Coach Aaron Glenn: “Put your seatbelts on and get ready for the ride.”
Watch LIVE: https://t.co/UisCKXudxn pic.twitter.com/haUDUIRepc
— New York Jets (@nyjets) January 27, 2025
Thirty-one years ago, the Jets traded up in the first round to draft Glenn, an undersized cornerback with top-tier athleticism and toughness. Glenn was 22 then; he’s 52 now, with three grown kids and a lifetime of experience that brought him to this moment, chosen as the man who will shepherd an organization out of one of the worst dry spells in modern NFL history: nine years without a winning season, and 14 without a playoff appearance.
Glenn knows what it means to suffer as a Jet — and to come out the other side. They went 6-10 his rookie season, after which then-owner Leon Hess fired first-year head coach Pete Carroll. Two seasons with Rich Kotite resulted in 3-13 and 1-15 records. Then, Bill Parcells took over in 1997, a new sheriff in town.
Once again, there is a new sheriff in town.
All of Glenn’s football mentors have done this, taken a woebegone NFL franchise and turned it into a winner. He shouted them all out on Monday: Parcells and Sean Payton and Dan Campbell. When coaches are fired and new ones arrive, there’s always talk about culture and accountability, but rarely does anyone hone in on exactly what that means, or what it looks like.
Glenn simplified it: It’s about people.
“Get the right people in the building,” Glenn said. “I saw that with Bill Parcells when he got here, so I know it’s not a fluke. We did the same thing in Detroit. We expect to do that as soon as we can.”
The Jets have some pieces to be competitive, but do they have the people in place to get off the schneid? That’s what Glenn and Mougey will work to find out — who needs to be here, and who needs to be brought in.
If there was anything to take away from Monday’s press conference, it’s this: The Jets are Aaron Glenn’s show. Glenn and Mougey will work together, and the historically over-involved Johnson still lingers, but the Jets will be a team cultivated in Glenn’s vision.
“I’m authentic, I’m gonna be me,” Glenn said. “Whatever that may be, it is what it is. To me, leadership, when you look at the definition of leadership, I bring that to one word: Influence. That starts with my character. After that is my work ethic. I plan to bring that. I love this position that I’m in. I like that I can stand up in front of men and give direction. I like the fact that I can stand up in front of men and give structure. Players want that. They want to follow that. When it comes to the accountability part — they have to understand what they’re responsible for first before you can hold them accountable to that. That comes with structure and leadership.”
Mougey was sold on Glenn as a potential head coach long before they were paired up for the first time in Florham Park. In 2022, Mougey’s first as the Denver Broncos assistant general manager, he sat in on the team’s head coaching interviews. Mougey asked the same question to every candidate: What would your message be at your first team meeting if we hired you as head coach?
Most would talk about their philosophy for coaching, a lot of coachspeak. Glenn asked if they’d like him to just make the speech to them. So he stood up and, in front of Broncos brass, made a speech as if he was speaking to his team. Glenn didn’t get the job — the Broncos hired Nathaniel Hackett, then fired him after 15 games — but the speech stuck with Mougey.
“He was one of the first guys we interviewed in that search, we kept going back to it like: Damn, AG killed that thing,” Mougey said.
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Last week, Mougey — interviewing to be Glenn’s general manager — sat in his office and when Glenn started to talk, he could feel it again.
“The passion for the game,” Mougey said. “The passion and care for the players, the fans, his football acumen, it was instant, and we got to talking about this Jets team, and the vision, and the franchise, and we were in lock step right out the gate. Same vision, we were speaking the same language, so I can’t wait to work this partnership and bring a Super Bowl back to the New York Jets.”
It will be a partnership, more than most GM-coach pairings the Jets have had over the years. Both men will report directly to Johnson, whereas in the the previous regime the coach (Robert Saleh) reported to the GM (Joe Douglas) who then reported to the owner. And every roster decision the Jets make will be a collaboration, the goal being to find players that fit Glenn’s vision for the team, to get them back on track.
“I’ll say this about any player acquisition, whether we’re adding or subtracting that is going to be a decision with Aaron and I both,” Mougey said. “It’s a we. If it’s a player we add, it’s our decision.”
“We have a shared vision of how we’re going to do things,” Glenn said. “There’s nothing better in the world than having an ownership that’s committed to winning and then being a partner with a GM that has a shared vision of what you have. This is not going to be a situation where we agree on everything, we all know that. But when we get in a room we’re gonna hash it out and we’re going to come out as one.”
There is one decision lingering over the entire Jets operation, it has been that way since the 2024 season went off the rails, and it will continue to be that way until there’s some kind of resolution this offseason: Aaron Rodgers.
Nobody knows, not yet, whether Glenn and Mougey want to keep him around, or if the 41-year-old quarterback even wants to stay on a team with a first-time head coach, first-time GM and a still-unknown offensive play-caller. Where the last regime kowtowed to Rodgers’ every whim, Glenn and Mougey are leaving it up to interpretation.
The message: We don’t know if we want him. And, regardless, the New York Jets are more than one player.
Mougey and Glenn have both texted — not FaceTime, which Rodgers has said he prefers — with Rodgers; they’re expected to meet with him in some fashion, at some point. But not before the Jets’ new decision-makers sit down and take a look at the entire roster, and what they want to do with it.
“We’re going to sit there and watch every game tape there is,” Glenn said. “And then we’re going to look at the whole roster. This thing is not about Aaron Rodgers, folks. This is about the roster. We plan on building the best roster that we can. So whatever that may be, guard, tackle, defensive tackle. That’s the way to evaluate. Everybody is under the microscope. That’s just the way it is.”
Mougey called it a “process.”
“I’ll say this about Aaron, first and foremost: I’ve got the most respect for Aaron Rodgers and what he’s done in this league as a player. One of the greatest of all time to play the position, one of the greatest players of all time. So I know Aaron has his process in the offseason that he goes through, we have ours, but that day is going to come. I look forward to it.”
Johnson said he will leave the decision about Rodgers up to Glenn and Mougey, and that he won’t let his opinions interfere with their process.
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All indications, both privately and publicly, are that Glenn will not put any single player above the rest of the team. Everyone is starting on equal ground: from Rodgers, Sauce Gardner and Garrett Wilson to the end of the roster. Glenn will put together a staff of coaches that, he said, are willing to collaborate. “Coaches are the start of your culture,” he said. “I’ve always taught that it’s not coachability it’s compatibility, and I want coaches that are compatible.”
As Monday’s press conference moved on, Glenn wouldn’t budge on Rodgers.
Will Aaron Rodgers be your quarterback?
“You can continue to ask me the same question, you’ll get the same answer. We’re still in evaluation mode. So if anyone else is gonna ask that, you get the same answer so don’t waste your time.”
What do you look for in a quarterback?
“A winner. A winner. Mental and physical toughness. You’re (the media) not gonna get me.”
Parcells always said…
“That’s Parcells. I’m Aaron Glenn.”
There weren’t any current players at Monday’s event, but Glenn had a message for them anyway.
“Put your seatbelts on and get ready for the ride,” he said. “There’s going to be some challenges, but from challenges come opportunities …
“Here’s what I know: We’re the freaking New York Jets. We’re built for this s—.”
For a long time, that hasn’t meant what it used to. Glenn is here to change that. He interviewed for a few different jobs, but this is where he always felt he was meant to be.
“It was all about the Jets,” he said, “and it has been that way from the beginning.”
(Photo: Ed Mulholland / Getty Images)
