Earlier this week, I dove into the main way in which I believe Aaron Glenn’s outlook as the New York Jets’ head coach has changed after four games.

And, no, the takeaway is not that Glenn should be fired tomorrow. That’s not the case at all… he should be fired on Monday. (At least, that’s what your average WFAN caller would suggest.)

Joking aside, my main takeaway with Glenn thus far is that, going forward, he must be evaluated primarily for his abilities as a strategist rather than a culture setter.

Off the field, Glenn has done just about everything you could ask for. He’s said all the right things since day one, and that has continued in training camp, the preseason, and the regular season. More importantly than his words, Glenn has taken action toward addressing the team’s on-field issues.

He is intense on the sidelines and reprimands players when they make mistakes. He’s cut a player for making a game-losing mistake. On the practice field, he implements drills that are designed to attack specific on-field weaknesses, whether it was the live tackling drills in camp (a response to the Jets’ missed tackles in 2024) or the recent boxing-glove drill (a response to the Jets’ league-high six lost fumbles through four games).

In many respects, you can hardly ask Glenn for more. He is not standing idly by as the Jets sputter, complacently assuring fans that progress will naturally happen despite doing little to facilitate that progress. (Hello, Adam Gase and Robert Saleh.)

Sure, Glenn has consistently stood at the podium and told fans that things will get better to no avail thus far, but he’s not asking you to believe him solely based on those words. He’s taking action to show you that he is doing everything in his power to make those words a reality.

Yet, the results have not changed one bit.

Why?

Well, the unfortunate reality is that no matter how hard he tries, Glenn cannot simply motivate the Jets into being a better team. No amount of yelling, screaming, mantras, or boxing-glove strikes will improve the Jets’ performance in live-game situations.

The only thing a head coach can truly do to give his team an on-field advantage? Employ strategies that put his players one step ahead of the opponent.

Robby Sabo said it best: “The best motivation a coach can provide a player these days is to place him in the perfect spot on the field.”

Philosophy, scheme, game-planning, play-calling, in-game adjustments, clock management, etc.—these are the categories where a head coach can directly influence his team’s on-field performance.

This is the realm where Glenn must be evaluated moving forward as we attempt to deduce whether he can be “the guy” in New York.

The NFL is a tactical league in 2025. Motivation, hustle, and physicality do not win games anymore—at least not on their own. While these traits are still a piece of the pie, wins and losses in today’s league are primarily determined by the chess match.

So far, Glenn has displayed some concerning signs as a chess player. The Jets have consistently deployed suboptimal strategies throughout the first four games. Whether it’s their game-planning, in-game adjustments, or overall preparation, New York has put itself two steps behind the opponent each week. No amount of hustle and grit can overcome that.

In Week 2, the Jets rarely blitzed Josh Allen despite Allen’s splits showing he performs significantly worse when blitzed. More importantly, the Jets’ defenders appeared unprepared to deal with the threat of Allen’s legs, as they consistently overpursued Allen and gave up contain. It was a combination of a poor game plan and poor preparation, leading to a 30-10 blowout that was much worse than the score lets on.

In Week 3, the Jets had the opposite issue. They blitzed Baker Mayfield heavily despite Mayfield’s splits showing he is much less effective (and more turnover-prone) when not blized. Mayfield responded by picking apart one-on-one matchups on the outside all game long. Additionally, the Jets’ predictability with their blitz usage throughout the game allowed the Bucs to scheme up an easy screen pass that sealed their game-winning comeback drive.

In Week 4, the Jets looked inexplicably shocked by the concepts that Mike McDaniel threw at them. Time and time again, the Jets bit extremely hard on play action, allowing Tua Tagovailoa to roll out and find an uncontested crossing route. This happened at least six times throughout the game, by my count. Being unprepared for Miami’s bread-and-butter is enough of a crime on its own, but failing to adjust after it happened numerous times is an even more unforgivable offense.

These are the red flags that surround Glenn as a head coach. Not the penalties. Not the turnover ratio. Not how hard his team plays. Strategy.

If Glenn fixes his strategy, improvement will follow in the more scrutinized areas.

Players won’t commit as many penalties if they are put in more advantageous positions.

Players won’t turn the ball over as much if the offense dials up easier answers, and the defense will record more takeaways if the play calling eliminates answers for the opposing quarterback.

And playing hard isn’t an issue; the Jets play too hard, if anything, and they need the coaching staff to rein them in and get them to play with more discipline and poise as a collective unit. Many of the Jets’ missed tackles occur due to one defender playing hero ball and trying to make the big stop, instead of just maintaining his responsibility to force the ball carrier into a teammate.

Since the tackling problem has affected so many players, it’s likely an issue that comes down to the coaches’ philosophy (one component of overall “strategy”). The staff seems to have embedded a “play hard” mentality into the defense rather than a “play smart” mentality. The live tackling drills from training camp could have sent the wrong message in this regard, encouraging one-on-one tenacity and aggression rather than discipline and a team-focused approach.

Football looks brutal and tenacious on the surface, but at its core, it is one of the most cerebral sports in the world. The Jets have enough athleticism and heart to win games; it’s why they’ve been close in three out of four contests. But if they don’t master the details, they will continue coming up just short. That comes down to the coaching staff.

Going forward, I will be focused on the Jets’ strategic components under Glenn. I am uninterested in what he says at the podium, what drills he runs in practice, or whether he chooses to dance after a go-ahead touchdown. What matters most is whether he can outsmart the other coach to put his team in advantageous positions.

That means we should be evaluating him in five particular categories:

  • What are the team’s overarching philosophies? (Mainly: Does it work for the modern NFL, and does it work for the particular roster?)
  • Are the players collectively displaying ideal fundamentals, discipline, and smarts?
  • Are the core offensive and defensive schemes built to fit the players on the roster?
  • Do the players look prepared each week for the opponent’s specific traits?
  • Are the weekly game plans designed around the opponent’s strengths, weaknesses, and tendencies?
  • Are we seeing quick and savvy in-game adjustments responding to what is and isn’t working?
  • Does Glenn optimize the Jets’ odds of winning through his game and clock management?

Playing at home against another rookie head coach in Brian Schottenheimer, this is a perfect week for Glenn to begin taking steps forward in the strategy department.

Here are some things that Jets fans should want to see from New York against the Dallas Cowboys, each tracing back to Glenn.

Air it out! (Specifically targeting CBs deep)

The Jets want to be a ground-and-pound team, and rightfully so. That’s what their roster is built for.

But when the opponent calls for you to switch it up, you have to switch it up.

The Cowboys’ defense has some of the starkest run-pass splits in the NFL. They haven’t been too shabby against the run, ranking 11th-best with 4.0 yards per rush attempt allowed. Against the pass, though, they rank last in the NFL with 8.5 net yards per attempt allowed.

You read that correctly: Dallas is giving up well over twice as many yards per play against the pass as they are against the run.

Now, I do not possess a mathematics degree, nor did I even get straight Bs during my high school math career (curse you, trigonometry), but my hypothesis is that the Jets would probably have more success if they prioritized the pass this week.

Justin Fields is averaging just 25 dropbacks per start this season. He hit a season-high 35 dropbacks in last week’s loss, but that was only because the Jets were forced to pass late in the game.

This week, the Jets should build a game plan designed to let Fields challenge Dallas’ cornerbacks down the field. Their goal should be for Fields to drop back at least 30-35 times regardless of game flow. Yes, Fields has numerous warts in his game as a passer, and yes, the Jets lack wide receiver talent beyond Garrett Wilson.

It doesn’t matter. Dallas’ defense is ripe for the picking against anybody.

Russell Wilson dropped 450 yards and three touchdowns against Dallas in Week 2 despite combining for 328 yards and no touchdowns across his other two starts this season. Caleb Williams exploded for 298 yards, four touchdowns, and a 142.6 passer rating against the Cowboys in Week 3, compared to his averages of 209.7 yards, 1.3 touchdowns, and an 83.9 passer rating in his other three starts.

If Wilson and Williams can look like megastars against this Cowboys defense, so can Fields.

While I mostly like the job that Jets offensive coordinator Tanner Engstrand has done this season, he has gone a little overboard with the run-heaviness at times. This is the week for him to prove that he can balance things out when the situation calls for it.

Engstrand must build in a plethora of concepts that will let Fields take shots against the Cowboys’ cornerbacks. Each of Dallas’ top two cornerbacks, Kaiir Elam and Trevon Diggs, has allowed a passer rating over 150.0 on throws into their direction this season. All five cornerbacks to take a snap for the Cowboys have allowed a passer rating of 98 or worse.

Most other weeks, the Jets’ run-first approach will make sense, but the Jets would be shooting themselves in the foot if they did not prioritize the pass against this Cowboys defense. No team in the league is more vulnerable against the pass right now, and their run defense is decent.

If the Jets come out with another run-heavy game plan that lacks any downfield throws even when they do pass, it will be concerning (even if it works out), as it would show that the Jets are still not doing a good job of molding their strategy to the opponent’s strengths and weaknesses.

At the very least, the Jets must be aggressive downfield when they choose to pass, even if they lean toward the run overall. But if the Jets are run-heavy and stay conservative through the air (they did not complete a pass of 10+ air yards in the first half last week), it would be a poor strategy on the part of the coaching staff.

Fields is 3-of-4 for 83 yards, two touchdowns, and no interceptions on deep passes this season. It’s a part of his game that must be tapped into more frequently, and the Jets can’t ask for a better opportunity than a home game against Dallas.

Send the house at Dak Prescott (While prioritizing unpredictability)

The Jets have had a treacherous journey with the blitz this season. Sometimes, they’ve blitzed too much; other times, they’ve blitzed too little. And whether they’ve blitzed or not, they’ve still been scorched.

This week, the plan should be clear: Send the house at Dak Prescott.

Prescott has been one of the NFL’s best quarterbacks this season. Most of his success has come when teams sat back in coverage against him. When not blitzed, Prescott is averaging an incredible 0.303 EPA per dropback, which ranks third among 32 qualified quarterbacks.

When blitzed, however, Prescott’s EPA per dropback falls to 0.088, which is only 15th.

Yes, I know “EPA per dropback” is a nerdy stat that many people groan at. So, let me give you some context on what those numbers mean. The difference between Prescott’s EPA per dropback when blitzed and not blitzed is 0.215; that is a larger gap than the one that separated 2024 MVP Josh Allen’s season-long mark (0.273) from Joe Flacco (0.071) and Kirk Cousins (0.068).

Blitz Prescott, and you can turn him from an MVP-caliber quarterback into today’s versions of Joe Flacco and Kirk Cousins.

The case for blitzing Prescott goes beyond his individual numbers. It is also due to the matchup between New York’s cornerbacks and Dallas’ wide receivers.

CeeDee Lamb and KaVontae Turpin have been ruled out from Sunday’s game. Without Lamb and Turpin, the Cowboys’ wide receiver room is down to George Pickens, Jalen Tolbert, and Ryan Flournoy.

With those key absences, New York should trust that its cornerbacks can at least stay equal with Dallas’ wide receivers, if not win the matchup (as long as Sauce Gardner plays up to his ceiling). For all of the criticism directed at the Jets’ cornerbacks this year, it has still been an average-ish unit around the NFL.

Through Week 4, New York’s cornerback unit ranked 14th-best in yards allowed per coverage snap (0.94), 16th-best in yards allowed per target (7.1), and seventh-best in missed tackle rate (11.3%).

Sauce Gardner is mostly to thank for those respectable numbers, even if he continues to receive excessive criticism from his own fanbase. Dallas’ injuries at wide receiver allow for New York to have Gardner follow Pickens while trusting Brandon Stephens to win against Tolbert.

Gardner has the ideal length and physicality to match Pickens, a big-bodied vertical threat. Meanwhile, the Jets should have faith that Stephens is good enough to handle Tolbert, Dallas’ fifth-leading receiver this season. If Stephens runs into trouble, they can shade help in his direction thanks to their trust in Gardner to win on an island against Pickens.

With a favorable cornerback-versus-receiver matchup, the Jets should feel comfortable sending a heavy dosage of blitzes with man coverage behind them. If all goes according to plan, it should yield positive results. Prescott is a worse quarterback when blitzed, and the Jets have the matchups outside to mitigate the risk of taking a defender out of the coverage scheme.

The key, though, is for New York to be unpredictable with its blitzes. So far this season, the Jets have been too predictable with their defensive play-calling. Steve Wilks rarely blitzes on the early downs, but loves sending the house on third down, and opponents have picked up on it.

The Jets rank 19th in the NFL with a 26.2% blitz rate on first or second down. On third down, their blitz rate spikes to 42.5%, which ranks seventh. Their 16.3% increase from first/second down to third down is the eighth-highest in football. Therein lies the predictability of Wilks’ play calling.

To take it a step further, the Jets are particularly predictable when it comes to their man blitzes.

When using man coverage on first or second down, the Jets blitz 29.7% of the time, which ranks 24th in the NFL. But when they use man coverage on third down, their blitz rate skyrockets all the way to 55%, which ranks eighth. The 25.3% increase ranks fourth-highest in the league.

Why is this particularly important? Because it provides an easy tell to teams who heavily utilize pre-snap motion.

Pre-snap motion has become prevalent in the NFL because it helps provide clues to the quarterback. In many situations, the quarterback can confidently discern whether the defense is playing man or zone based on how it reacts to pre-snap motion. Typically, if a defender follows a receiver across the formation on a pre-snap motion, it means they are playing man.

So, if you are playing the Jets, and you identify man coverage before the snap, you can make a pretty strong guess on whether or not they’re blitzing just based on the down. That information alone can tip you off to whether there is a ~30% chance of a blitz or a 55% chance, which is a huge deal.

Toss in further clues, like the yards-to-go, the score, the time on the clock, and the defensive formation, and opposing quarterbacks can very easily predict whether the Jets are blitzing whenever they decide to play man coverage.

Wilks (as the play caller) and Glenn (as the man ultimately in charge of everything that happens) must cease this absurd predictability. The modern NFL is all about deception. You must create advantages by preventing the opponent from having any clue of what’s coming. The Jets are failing in that department on the defensive side of the ball.

Based on the Cowboys’ strengths, weaknesses, and injuries, heavily blitzing Prescott is the Jets’ ideal plan on Sunday. However, the plan can only work if the Jets stay unpredictable. If Prescott and Brian Schottenheimer quickly pick up New York’s tendencies, they will carve the Jets up regardless of Prescott’s blitz struggles or Lamb’s absence.

The Jets’ issue is that they blitz too infrequently on the first two downs and too much on third down. As the season progresses, they must mix up those tendencies to keep opponents on their toes.

Given the Jets’ tendencies so far, Dallas is probably going into Sunday preparing to face four-man rushes on the early downs and call blitz-beaters on third down. If the Jets maintain the same tendencies, they will play right into the Cowboys’ hands. But if they switch things up, they can leave Dallas scrambling for answers.

On Sunday, New York should be aggressive with its blitz rate on the early downs while scaling back the blitzing on third down. This is the best strategy to both force Prescott into confronting the blitz and stay unpredictable while doing so.

It’s all about strategy for Aaron Glenn and the Jets moving forward. As the Dallas Cowboys ride into MetLife Stadium, look for two specific things in that department: an aggressive offensive game plan designed to exploit Dallas’ cornerbacks down the field, and a blitz-heavy defensive game plan that is predicated upon breaking tendencies.

Win or lose, if the Jets employ those strategies, it will show that Glenn is taking steps forward when it comes to putting his players in the best position to succeed.