Aaron Glenn’s QB pushback is digging a deeper hole for Jets

The New York Jets refuse to name a starting quarterback going into their Week 8 contest against the Cincinnati Bengals. While most coaches around the league will push for a “competitive advantage” in these situations, Gang Green’s insistence is only digging a deeper hole.

Head coach Aaron Glenn has built a reputation of being a stickler to the media. He won’t give answers when he feels he doesn’t need to. Friday’s availability featured more of the same.

While fans wait to see whether Tyrod Taylor or Justin Fields will take the field for Sunday’s contest, Glenn’s lack of transparency has begun to wear on Jets fans, especially since it has done nothing to help fix New York’s 0-7 record.

Competitive Advantage

Here was the full conversation from Glenn and reporters regarding the quarterback position on Friday.

• Reporter: So, are you able to tell us who’s going to start?
• Glenn: I cannot tell you that.
• Reporter: But is it because you don’t want to or because…
• Glenn: That’s exactly it.
• Reporter: But with Tyrod’s situation, being questionable, does that play into this potentially?
• Glenn: That’s exactly why I’m not telling you. Because I don’t want to.
• Reporter: I understand that. But is it partially because of the injury?
• Glenn: That’s exactly why I’m saying it, because I don’t want to. [Cuts reporter off] I don’t know how many times I got to answer you that. It’s not going to change.
• Reporter: Do the players know who the quarterback is?
• Glenn: That’s going to be between me and the players.
• Reporter: I guess, not knowing how secretive it is, does it affect the preparation at all for the game?
• Glenn: We had a great week of practice with our guys. Our guys know and we’re going to keep that between us and that’s how it’s going to be.
• Reporter: Have the starters gotten the normal reps to start this week like before?
• Glenn: That’s between me and the team.

That’s a whole lot of non-answers for a team that hasn’t won a game.

New York’s quarterback decision is made more complex by Tyrod Taylor’s injury. The 36-year-old suffered a knee injury in last week’s loss to Carolina and has been labeled as questionable for this week’s matchup.

But what is with all the secrecy? Do the Jets really believe that there’s a competitive advantage when they go into a game without allowing the opponent to know who’s starting?

According to Glenn, that is the case.

Glenn makes Lions comp

Before Glenn became head coach of the Jets, the former Pro Bowl cornerback served as the Detroit Lions’ defensive coordinator. In that role, he encountered similar situations where other teams tried to find a “competitive advantage.”

One such occasion happened in 2024 when the Lions faced a Green Bay Packers team that toyed between starting quarterback Jordan Love (who was hurt) and former third-round pick Malik Willis.

“It was tough,” Glenn said on Friday. “I went through that in Detroit when it was Malik Willis and Jordan Love. I thought (Matt) LaFleur did a really good job of not saying who their quarterback was, and we had to prepare for both of those guys. So, I don’t see why we think this is something that hasn’t been done.”

While Glenn is using the Packers as an example here, he doesn’t seem to understand the major differences between the two situations.

Love and Willis were two different quarterbacks. They play differently and need different offensive schemes to be successful. There was a legitimate competitive advantage for the Packers because a defensive coordinator essentially had to make two gameplans.

With the Jets, Taylor and Fields are practically the same players: athletic quarterbacks who scan their first read and then try to make plays with their legs. Their offense is built around having a backup quarterback who can do the same things as the starter.

Therefore, the Jets have no competitive advantage by holding a starter. The Bengals will prepare for Sunday the same way if Fields or Taylor start.

The only thing Glenn is achieving is losing whatever goodwill he has left with a Jets team that has struggled all season in almost every facet of the game.

It’s unnecessary, it ignores the bigger issues the team is dealing with, and it only buries Glenn into a deeper hole to try and dig himself out of.