It was one year ago, exactly. Aaron Glenn stood in front of a crowd of reporters, Jets staffers and former Jets players at his introductory press conference as the franchise’s new head coach and announced to the world that things were going to be different with him in charge.
“Put your seatbelts on,” Glenn said, “and get ready for the ride.”
In retrospect, maybe that should’ve been viewed less as a rallying cry and more of a harbinger of what was to come in his first calendar year. The seatbelt is meant for safety, to prevent serious injury in the event of something calamitous, like a crash.
Calamity. That’s a good word to describe the last few days, the last week, or the last few months. One year ago, there was belief. It withered amid an 0-7 start, and even more so during an historically poor 0-5 finish. Now, the tumultuous start to the offseason, including offensive coordinator Tanner Engstrand’s unexpected departure, make it fair to wonder if Glenn has what it takes to turn things around.
Based on conversations with multiple team and league sources, here is how the Jets’ coaching-staff turmoil has played out:
The Jets fired defensive coordinator Steve Wilks on Dec. 15 with three games remaining and replaced him with defensive backs coach Chris Harris in the interim. By the end of the season, the Jets had set records for futility, so the firing was warranted — the Jets were the first team to ever go a full season without recording a single interception.
On Dec. 22, Glenn asked for patience from an increasingly agitated fan base: “For the fans, listen, it’s going to be a tough road,” he said. “We knew that, but, man, the thing is, we know exactly what we’re doing. We have a plan. Just don’t let go of the rope, I would say that.”
We have a plan.
It’s a line Glenn has repeated on numerous occasions, including after a season-ending loss to the Buffalo Bills and a few days later at his season-ending press conference.
At some point before the end of the season, before that Bills game, Glenn had initial conversations with veteran coach Wink Martindale about the idea of becoming Glenn’s defensive coordinator.
When the season ended, Glenn held meetings with each member of his coaching staff individually and said to some of them that they were free to explore other opportunities if they arose, though he didn’t necessarily tell them they were fired. As of a week or so ago, many of those coaches felt they were safe in their roles based on conversations they had with Glenn. That included Engstrand, who believed he’d be calling plays again in 2026.
Multiple coaches expressed a feeling that something changed in the last week. On Thursday night, Glenn started to inform various members of the coaching staff that he was letting them go, including passing game coordinator Scott Turner, quarterbacks coach Charles London, defensive line coach Eric Washington, linebackers coach Aaron Curry, assistant defensive backs coach Dre’ Bly, nickel coach Alonso Escalante and defensive assistant Roosevelt Williams.
In the last week or so, Glenn had also started to reach out to multiple veteran offensive coaches — including Frank Reich, as first reported by SNY — about the idea of joining the staff and calling plays. In recent days, Glenn had conversations with Engstrand about the idea of adjusting his role, letting him keep the title of offensive coordinator but bringing in someone else to call plays. Nothing was decided as of Saturday. At one point, the Jets contacted Jon Gruden about joining Glenn’s staff, though it’s unclear what role they wanted to discuss. (Gruden told the team he was not interested.)
Meanwhile, things changed in the defensive-coordinator search. Martindale was viewed, internally and around the league, as the favorite to replace Wilks from the moment Glenn started the interview process. The Jets announced they’d interviewed, virtually, eight candidates on Jan. 16, including Martindale. Most of the other candidates lacked play-calling experience in the NFL, outside of Harris, Martindale, Lions assistant Jim O’Neil and Packers run game coordinator Demarcus Covington. Broncos pass game coordinator Jim Leonhard — expected to take the DC job with the Bills — never seriously considered the Jets job.
When Martindale went into his second interview with the Jets on Saturday, he was still viewed as the favorite. O’Neil was viewed as the fallback (O’Neil has since signed a new contract to remain with the Lions) and league sources suggested keeping an eye on Harris as an option if Glenn decided to call plays himself.
That was not the plan initially. Saturday, that became part of the conversation — Glenn told various members of the Jets’ staff, as well as coaching candidates he was interviewing, that he was leaning toward calling defensive plays himself.
When Glenn was hired, he said this about calling plays as the head coach: “I won’t call the defense. I want to be the best head coach. In order for me to do that I think I need to manage the game. So I want to have my OC and the DC calling the plays.”
Now, the wind seems to be blowing toward Glenn calling plays regardless of who he hires at DC — and as a result, Martindale is no longer viewed as the favorite for the job. The Jets virtually interviewed an additional coach for the position on Tuesday (Dolphins pass game coordinator Brian Duker) and Harris is viewed as a legitimate contender to keep the job he took on when Wilks was fired. In three games with Harris as defensive coordinator, the Jets allowed 106 points. And as the defensive backs coach, his unit didn’t record any interceptions.
As for Engstrand, Glenn had no intention of firing him — and as of Saturday, he was viewed as part of the staff for 2026 regardless of who else Glenn hired. The exact terms of Engstrand’s departure are unclear, but being stripped of play-calling marked a clear demotion. On Tuesday, Engstrand and the Jets officially parted ways.
It’s the end of January and Glenn has yet to complete his search for a defensive coordinator, and is at the very beginning of an unexpected search for an offensive coordinator. If Engstrand had stayed while maintaining his title of offensive coordinator, the Jets could have skipped the interview process required for offensive and defensive coordinators. Instead, Glenn must abide by the Rooney Rule and interview at least two minority candidates for the job in-person. So whether Reich, or someone else, is the front-runner, a candidate can’t be hired until Glenn goes through that process.
And at this point, it would be hard to believe it’s a particularly appealing landing spot.
History was already stacked against Glenn based on the way his first season went. Glenn is one of 23 coaches since 2000 to win three or fewer games in his first season, and of that group only four rebounded to make the playoffs during their tenure: Dan Campbell, Jim Schwartz, Zac Taylor and Leslie Frazier.
The history of first-year coaches blowing up their staff after their first year is even thinner. Usually, coaches make changes on one side of the ball that is struggling — like Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald did (after a 10-win season) when he fired his offensive coordinator (Ryan Grubb), quarterbacks coach (London) and offensive line coach (Scott Huff).
This setup feels more like what Hue Jackson did with the Cleveland Browns. That team went 1-15 in Jackson’s first year, after which Jackson fired his offensive and defensive coordinators. The next year, the Browns went 0-16.
Any time Glenn was criticized during the 2025 season, which was often, especially during an 0-7 start, he insisted he had a plan in place. Don’t let go of the rope, he said, on numerous occasions.
The most important part of the plan, he said last year: coaching.
“When it comes to staffing, that’s a work in progress,” Glenn said at his intro press conference. “I’m looking for the best coaches that are going to help us succeed and I do believe that coaches are the start of your culture. So every coach will be looked at to make sure they can bring that. It’s not coachability, it’s compatibility. I want to make sure the coaches we bring in are compatible.”
Glenn’s relationships around the league and ability to build a coaching staff was the thing that Mike Tannenbaum — the former Jets GM who was part of the team’s search committee for head coach and general manager last offseason — cited as one of his best attributes.
His staffing plan included Engstrand, Wilks and all those other coaches he just fired. He deserves credit for hiring special teams coordinator Chris Banjo, a rising star, as well as offensive line coach Steve Heiden, who did a commendable job developing a young group. The rest of his plan failed. This offseason, the Jets will need to find a new quarterback too — along with a slew of other holes up and down the roster.
It feels like Glenn is starting from scratch. He might be buckled in, but his seat has to be feeling much warmer than it did even a few days ago.
