Aaron Glenn brings physicality back to the New York Jets

When Aaron Glenn proclaimed his desire to return physicality to the New York Jets, he wasn’t fooling around. We now know this due to the rarely-seen unicorn that showed its mythical face Monday morning in Florham Park, NJ.

Live tackling makes its return

After a familiar walkthrough session that proceeded team stretches, the New York Jets started Monday morning’s session with an oldie but a goodie: open-field tackling drills.

As reported by Jets X-Factor, Glenn introduced the concept to his team this past Saturday, but this go-around featured the real deal. Instead of working on just the angles, the Jets participated in a fully live tackling (to-the-ground) drill.

Don’t think of it as anything resembling Oklahoma drills (as seen in the all-time classic film Rudy); this drill emphasizes an inside-out pursuit while working within a 10-yard space.

Whereas Oklahoma drills delve into blocking and shedding in confined areas, this Glenn favorite spotlights the players’ ability to work in open space.

The 1v1 setup features both players on one side to start—with the offensive player appropriately having a slight one or two-yard advantage. On the whistle, the ball carrier bolts to the other “sideline” (which is about 10 yards away), only for the defender to pursue with an inside-out responsibility.

This leads to an infinite number of possibilities. The ball carrier can dash for the edge, cut it up at any time, or even try to truck the defender into oblivion.

Running back Braelon Allen was one of the ball-carriers who flicked the truck stick, but safety Andre Cisco shut it down pretty impressively. Sophomore wideout Malachi Corley put on an elusive move that beat linebacker Jackson Sirmon pretty badly (which should be the case, thanks to the matchup).

Elsewhere, team favorite Jarius Monroe enjoyed a nice showing in the drill that featured a lot of leg tackling. Considering this is at the NFL level, where each player’s quickness is on another level, offensive players have a tremendous advantage, especially in today’s less physical version of the sport.

The injury mindset

Though everybody is concerned about injuries after hearing about live tackling at practice, head coach Aaron Glenn molds a different, much more appropriate mindset. Instead of literally knocking on wood—like the previous regime’s sideline boss when speaking at the podium—Glenn’s ideas fall more in line with a tried-and-tested line of thinking.

“I think injuries are a part of this game, and there is no way to hide from it,” Glenn told the media after practice. “Usually, when you try to hide from it, that’s when they usually pop up.”

The former Detroit Lions defensive coordinator knows injuries all too well. They ravaged his defense last season.

Still, it’s critical to sometimes stay the course through belief systems rather than running scared (changing philosophies so quickly and drastically). In my humble opinion, going harder in the summer actually prevents more injuries in the long run.

That may seem counterproductive by nature, and it might not work out in the short term, but when speaking on this topic that has no evidence on either side to prove anybody right, ramping up the physicality as early as possible is what guards against long-term suffering.

“The principles of this game will never change,” Glenn added. “This game is about running, blocking, and tackling, and if you don’t practice that, me, as a head coach, how am I giving our guys a chance to win? The only way to get better at something is to rep it.”

Not to be overlooked, the big heavies also got physical in their pass-rushing drills.

Quinnen Williams beat John Simpson to the outside on one rep, whereas Armand Membou put up a pretty solid fight against Will McDonald—just two days after the latter buried the former with a speed-to-power straight-arm rush move.

Team sessions

Glenn also made it crystal clear that his practices won’t resemble those of Bear Bryant’s Junction Boys of 1954 Texas A&M fame. Nor could they come close to such brutality, courtesy of the modern CBA.

Evidence of that followed the live open-field drills, as team sessions returned to thud, wrap, and release (no tackling to the ground).

Braelon Allen took a handoff 80 yards to the house on one of the first plays in teams. While, yes, the play was blocked well, the threat of Justin Fields off the edge held the second level just enough to help free Allen.

Speaking of the quarterback, who looks completely healthy after a bout of recent hysteria, he found Garrett Wilson in a 1v1 situation against Brandon Stephens down the left sideline for 25-plus yards. Yet again, he took advantage of the cornerback’s eyes not being in the proper position.

Fields also found tight end Mason Taylor on a big play that broke to the sideline from the seam.

Perhaps the defensive standout was rookie safety Malachi Moore, who broke outrageously on a designed WR screen to shut it down, and then picked up a PD against Malachi Corley.

Read below for an inside look at which Jets offensive lineman stayed after practice to work on some pass-pro sets, and some of the blocking drills the team featured on Monday morning.