Reporting live from New York Jets HQ in Florham Park, NJ—A little over a week after the media covered Aaron Glenn’s first New York Jets OTA session, it’s time to run it back.
Of course, the Jets have been hard at work for quite some time. Glenn’s football program has been in full effect since taking over as the organization’s new head coach, but Thursday’s practice marks one of the days when the media has an on-scene glimpse.
Stick with Jets X-Factor all day for live updates from the Atlantic Health Jets Center in Florham Park, NJ.
The coordinators speak
Before practice, both Jets’ coordinators spoke to the media. First, defensive coordinator Steve Wilks marched to the podium, whereas young Tanner Engstrand followed him.
Special teams coordinator Chris Banjo even got his podium time in, as he met with the media once practice concluded.
An instructional feel
Like last week’s first OTA session, Thursday had an instructional feel. Glenn had his Jets in a helmet-only look, and nailing down the technical aspects of the playbook was front and center.
This equates to a walkthrough feel at some points. However, some moments featured an all-out vibe without the tackling and thumping.
The first play of the first 7v7 session resulted in a tidy-looking play that will be commonplace for the Jets offense in 2025. Quarterback Justin Fields found Breece Hall out of the backfield on a designed quick-timing concept.
If the first media-available OTA focused more on the newly installed rushing concepts, this week’s OTA emphasizes the quick passing game. Time and again, Fields and the quarterbacks worked on reading the defense—oftentimes out of a formation intended to more easily recognize the coverage pre-snap—en route to the three-step passing concepts.
It shouldn’t surprise anybody if this pattern progresses, and the intermediate-to-deeper passing game is highlighted next week—the OTA session open to the media on Tuesday.
Although Fields found his old college teammate, Garrett Wilson, several times, the Jets quarterback made a tremendous play on one rep. Had he experienced a clean pocket, Allen Lazard may have been the target for a big chunk (he created separation), but the incoming pressure forced Fields to move right a bit and deliver a beauty to Wilson down the right side of the field for 20-plus yards.
Elsewhere, Tyrod Taylor found Xavier Gipson on a nice anticipation throw.
Aaron Glenn continues his broader view
As mentioned previously, Aaron Glenn continues down the path of “general viewer.” While he’s not exactly taking on the “Bear Bryant in the tower” tactic, New York’s sideline boss is keenly aware that his role is to take in as much information as possible.
Despite his usual chatty and confrontational nature, Glenn is rarely seen chopping it up with players during practice. Instead, he intentionally keeps a distance with the goal of extended observation.
I assume that Glenn understands his time for 1-on-1 meetings and mixing it up with players and coaches comes off the practice field. After all, there’s plenty of time in that regard.
There is very little practice time, courtesy of the CBA. Understanding the value of each practice moment is critical, and it appears that Aaron Glenn is wholeheartedly maximizing that time as the boss of the entire program.
Mason Taylor’s interesting deployment
Despite the lack of imagination in the offensive concepts, some of the formations and personnel deployments raised some eyebrows in an oh-so-slight fashion.
First and foremost, don’t be confused; it’s not as though Tanner Engstrand is throwing wild looks on the field during OTAs. That’s just not how things are done. At the same time, how the Jets deployed rookie tight end Mason Taylor was interesting.
Based on everything I’ve seen from Taylor thus far, I’d be stunned if he’s not an immediate contributor in Week 1. On Thursday, he made an easy catch on a Fields ball that wasn’t difficult to execute, but that’s not the story.
It wasn’t difficult because of the story’s point: Taylor found the soft spot in the coverage.
He almost “hid” from the defense, ran the route at the perfect depth, and split the two backers in a near-perfect way, making his quarterback’s life incredibly easy.
Additionally, don’t think about Breece Hall as just a running back. That would be a criminal mistake.
It wouldn’t shock me if Braelon Allen finishes the 2025 season with more rush attempts than Breece, while the latter has more overall touches than the former. Allen could edge Breece in rush attempts while No. 20’s overall impact is at a Pro Bowl level.
Jets X-Factor will return at the Atlantic Health Jets Center in five days. Aaron Glenn’s next OTA open to the media is scheduled for Tuesday, June 3, 2025.
