The New York Jets still have more than half of the 2026 season left to play, and there has not been a single report indicating that they might make an in-season head coaching change.
Yet, much of the Jets’ fanbase has already mentally moved on from head coach Aaron Glenn.
In some fans’ minds, Jacksonville Jaguars offensive coordinator Grant Udinski may as well be the franchise’s current head coach. Through social media hype surrounding his appeal as a 2027 Jets head coaching candidate, Udinski suddenly became one of the most popular men in the state of New Jersey this week.
Jets fans have already near-unanimously embraced the idea of the 30-year-old Jaguars OC replacing the team’s former beloved Pro Bowl cornerback.
Other young candidates, too, are gaining steam as potential targets for New York.
Glenn’s fate has been sealed in the eyes of many. But with nine of 17 games to go and no sign of the Jets making a change in-season, he still has every opportunity to turn things around. After all, if the Jets win out, they’ll be 11-6, and nobody would have any qualms about his return at that point.
Of course, the Jets will not win out. So, keeping things realistic, what could Glenn do to justify returning as New York’s head coach in 2027?
If he accomplishes these goals, a conversation can be had.
1. Finish at least 8-9
At the bare minimum, the Jets have to finish this season with an 8-9 record to start having a conversation about Glenn returning. That would entail finishing with at least a 6-3 record over the final nine games.
Some might consider that bar to be too high for a team that went 3-14 last year, as a 7-10 finish would still represent more than doubling Glenn’s debut win total. But let’s be realistic, folks: NFL rebuilds don’t have to take eons anymore. If the Jets finish 7-10, Glenn’s record will be 10-24. That’s what Glenn should be judged on: his two-year body of work, not doubling the win total of a historically bad team that he was responsible for.
Doubling up on a 3-14 debut is unimpressive in a world where coaches like Liam Coen and Ben Johnson are constantly showing up and turning rebuilding franchises into contenders in their first seasons. Glenn got a second chance despite failing to do the same, and the team invested plenty of assets to support a turnaround in the standings, yet it hasn’t happened.
This past offseason, the Jets added a veteran starting quarterback who has played at an above-average level, drafted three players in the first round (who have already combined for four Rookie of the Week awards in a half-season), and handed out a litany of eight-figure free-agent contracts. This roster is good enough on paper to comfortably exceed seven wins under league-average coaching, and its on-field play this season has proven that.
After all, through eight weeks, based on the cumulative individual metrics of their players, they should be expected to finish with over 10 wins. Instead, they’re on pace for four.
It can be argued that even an 8-9 finish would be slightly underwhelming for this Jets team, given the talent their roster has shown and the level of quarterback play they have received from Geno Smith, who is on pace to break multiple franchise records and is outplaying a plethora of starting quarterbacks for teams that currently have winning records. But since 8-9 would be considered an overachievement before the season, a conversation about Glenn’s return can begin if he manages to get there, even if the team’s playoff hopes are already lost at 2-6.
At 7-10, though, the season would be nothing to write home about, regardless of how it compares to the historically laughable 2025 season or the modest leap from 2-6 to a 5-4 finish. Most NFL franchises can win seven games with their hands tied behind their backs. The Jets should not overrate that “achievement” just because their own bar is so low.
Simply put, 8-9 is where the conversation begins. Anything less, and the Jets would be far too fond of mediocrity to even remotely consider bringing Glenn back. There isn’t a version of 7-10 in which a strong case can be built, regardless of the team’s point differential, player development, quality of victories, or closeness of losses over these final nine games. Glenn’s hole is already incredibly deep, and he needs a huge leap to climb out of it, not a skip and a hop.
Get to 8-9, and we’ll talk.
2. Get at least three wins over top-tier teams
Eight wins is the bare-minimum bar, but it doesn’t automatically punch Glenn’s ticket to return. From there, it comes down to the quality of Glenn’s coaching over the next nine games. He shouldn’t be automatically retained because of his win-loss record; he has to show legitimate, substantial progress as a head coach.
Remember when the Jets brought back Adam Gase after the 2019 season? His 7-9 record was a three-win improvement over Todd Bowles’ 2018 season, but Gase got there off a 6-2 finish that was largely comprised of ugly wins over bad teams and backup quarterbacks, with two embarrassing defeats lodged in. Outside of a free win over the resting Bills, their best victory was a 13-6 triumph over an 8-8 Steelers team led by some guy named “Duck” at quarterback.
Record aside, Gase had clearly shown that he wasn’t the long-term answer, but the Jets were duped by his win-loss record and brought him back. The same scenario could transpire for Glenn in a world where the Jets finish 8-9 or better. So, if the Jets get that far, they have to evaluate Glenn independently of the record.
The biggest caveat is the quality of the Jets’ victories. Glenn has to prove he can beat great teams and great coaches, something he has not come close to accomplishing yet.
Twenty-five games into his NFL head coaching career, Glenn only has one win over a team that entered with a winning record. That was the Jets’ Week 5 win over the 3-1 Cleveland Browns, but let’s be honest; when the 2026 season is all said and done, the Browns might not go down as an above-.500 opponent.
Here’s a stat that might shock you: Cleveland’s point differential (-34) is 16 points worse than the Jets’ (-18). That just goes to show the disparity in coaching between Glenn and first-year Browns leader Todd Monken, who, with Deshaun Watson at quarterback and a roster that traded away its Hall-of-Fame defensive end, has five wins in eight games compared to Glenn’s five in 25.
No matter what the Jets’ record is at the end of the year, if Glenn has not shown he can routinely take down winning opponents, there is no point in bringing him back. For that reason, ownership should want to see at least three victories (out of a minimum of six total) over high-quality opponents between now and the end of the year.
The Jets will have plenty of chances, starting with the next two weeks, as they visit the Kansas City Chiefs and host the Buffalo Bills. Coming out of their Week 13 bye, they have home games against the Denver Broncos, New England Patriots, and Minnesota Vikings, along with a season finale in Buffalo.
While it is unclear which of those teams will finish with winning records (or if the Jets will get Buffalo at full strength in Week 18), the bottom line is simple: Glenn needs to start stockpiling signature wins. When the best win on your resume is a one-score win over Deshaun Watson in a rainy game where the deciding play was a bad snap on a punt, you have hardly shown the ability to give your team an advantage from a coaching standpoint.
Racking up at least three wins against teams like Kansas City, Buffalo, and New England would be a sign of legitimate progress.
3. Improvement in areas specifically attributed to the coach
There’s another step to this, even if the Jets check both of the first two boxes.
It’s possible for New York to finish 8-9, beat at least three high-quality teams, and still be best off moving on from Glenn. That’s because coaching is not always responsible for a team’s success. Sometimes, talent can override the coaching.
The Jets are loaded with talent; there’s a reason that Pro Football Focus had them with the seventh-highest graded roster through Week 8. That talent is the reason why the Jets have been a play away from victory in five of their six losses.
So, there is certainly a world where the Jets get hot to finish the season despite no change in Glenn’s coaching. They have the talent to do it. That’s why the Jets have to evaluate Glenn’s progress as an individual.
If the Jets go 6-3, but Glenn continues making the same mistakes in areas like clock management, game management, challenges, in-game adjustments, and end-of-half execution, they need to separate the credit for their finish between the roster talent and the coaching. That is the type of scenario where the organization must have the guts to admit that, despite the team’s improving results as a whole, another coach will offer a better chance of maintaining and building upon those results.
Should the Jets turn things around, Glenn’s improvements as a head coach must clearly be an instrumental piece of that turnaround for him to return in 2027.
Bottom line
These are the three boxes for Glenn to check if he wants fans to entertain the idea of embracing his return in 2027:
- Finish at least 8-9
- Beat at least three top-tier teams to get there
- Show tangible, substantial progress in talent-independent areas as a head coach, playing a major role in the turnaround
That might seem like a high bar, but keep in mind how high the stakes are for New York. This is a franchise-altering decision. We knew that before the season, and the events of the first eight weeks have only raised those stakes even higher.
The Jets have three first-round picks in 2027, with at least one of those presumably being dedicated toward acquiring a franchise quarterback. It was already important for the Jets to make sure they had the right leader in place to use those picks and develop that quarterback, but now that the selections are each on track to land in the top 10 (a luxury never before seen in NFL history), the Jets really cannot mess around.
To boot, the Jets’ young core has impressed in a major way over the first eight weeks. Combine their existing young talent with the unprecedented assets they have in the offseason, and this is an extremely appealing landing spot for a prospective head coach.
If the Jets are going to retain Glenn instead of seeing who they could lure into a job with so many perks, they had better be darn sure that he can nail those picks, maximize this roster, and develop that young QB better than whoever would have been hired to replace him.
That’s why Glenn has to do a colossal amount of work over the next nine games to convince the Jets to keep him after a 5-20 start.
