Life has come full circle for New York Jets head coach Aaron Glenn. Once a Pro Bowl corner for Gang Green in the late 90s, Glenn became a scout after his playing career, and he quickly parlayed that experience into coaching.
On Wednesday morning, he took his first steps as Jets head coach during training camp.
Glenn has been waiting a long time for an opportunity like the one he is being presented with. The 53-year-old is out there to prove that he is more than capable of running a team independently.
The fact that it’s the same team that gave him his start in the league only adds further mystique to his hire.
Aaron Glenn’s Camp Message to Jets
Glenn didn’t take long Wednesday morning to get excited about his first camp as head coach. After practice, the former Lions defensive coordinator said that he woke up at 3:30 a.m. out of excitement for the day ahead.
“I’m looking forward to every part of every minute of every hour of what we have going on today because it’s a day of teaching and I want to make sure I go through that the right way,” Glenn said after practice.
A message awaited New York’s head coach when he woke up this morning.
From his wife.
“Just be AG,” the coach recalled.
That’s the message that Glenn has taken to heart, and has found a way to instill in the rest of his players.
The Jets may not have the kind of heightened expectations they did in years past, but Glenn is coming into the fray with a chip on his shoulder.
Running the team he was once a Pro Bowl player for only shows how special the task is for him moving forward.
“I’m happy to be standing in front of you guys at this point going through training camp,” Glenn said. “This is something that I’ve been waiting on for a long time. It’s the first day, obviously, and this is a one-day mentality for us.”
One reason Glenn was considered a top candidate for the Jets job was his ability to connect with locker rooms around the league. The push for CEO-type head coaches continues to grow in the modern NFL.
Glenn won’t call plays on either side of the ball this year. That is by design.
He wants to make sure the message for his players doesn’t change going into the next month and a half of practices.
“They (the players) understand that the expectation, like everybody else’s, is to win a Super Bowl,” Glenn explained. “We got it, but we break those expectations down into stages, so the only thing I want those guys to think about is what we’re trying to create in training camp, and that’s what we talked about yesterday for the most part.”
32 teams do everything in their power to compete for a Super Bowl. Some teams, like the Jets, will probably not get there this year, though.
That is why messaging is so essential for a first-time head coach. If Glenn can get the Jets to play more competitive football than they have in recent years, New York will have established the building blocks to develop into a contender in future years.
Glenn has waited a long time for this moment. It is special that he is coaching the team he was once a player for.
Now, though, the goal isn’t to endear himself to fans. The goal is to find a way to turn an organization that hasn’t been in the playoffs for 14 straight seasons into something more.
Into a contender.
