Jets HC adds 2 more hilarious game-managing blunders to resume

New York Jets head coach Aaron Glenn has struggled in many areas throughout his 0-7 start to the 2025 season.

It can be challenging to truly judge Glenn in some areas of perceived weakness. Isolating coaches from their surroundings is often a matter of subjectivity unless you’re in the building and know every play call.

However, if there is one area that we can pin entirely on the head coach, it’s game management.

Just seven games into his tenure as an NFL head coach, Glenn is racking up a lengthy list of game management blunders.

Here is a collection of his worst fourth-down calls and blown second-half timeouts through Week 6.

This doesn’t even include his end-of-half fiasco against Denver or his decision not to attempt a game-winning field goal near the end of regulation.

While Glenn already had quite a few game management blunders through Week 5, the Week 6 game against Denver brought things to a head. It was a coaching catastrophe of epic proportions, putting a blistering limelight on Glenn’s decisions going into Week 7.

So, how did Glenn fare in the Jets’ 13-6 loss to the Carolina Panthers?

It wasn’t as bad as Week 6. In fairness to Glenn, he made some optimal calls, including a pair of successful challenges. He made an aggressive fourth-and-5 call on the Jets’ opening drive instead of attempting a 51-yard field goal, which drew ire since the Jets failed to convert, but that call was essentially a toss-up, and I respect the aggressiveness at 0-6 and with the Jets’ offense desperate for a first-half spark.

However, Glenn still added two more bone-headed mistakes to his resume, both proving costly in another Jets loss.

Mistake #1: Failing to learn from the previous week’s blunder

We don’t have to waste time running through the second-quarter circus act in London again. All you need to know is this: on the Monday after the game, Glenn said he wished he had snapped the ball for a Hail Mary instead of letting the clock run out.

Glenn had a chance to do exactly that against Carolina, and he didn’t.

With the clock stopped at 15 seconds in the second quarter, the Jets faced a second-and-10 at Carolina’s 44-yard line. They still had one timeout left. Trailing 10-3 with Carolina due to receive the second-half kickoff, it was a pivotal moment for New York to try and get some points before the Panthers had a chance to take a two-touchdown lead.

On second down, Justin Fields took a 10-yard sack that brought New York back to its own 46-yard line. The whistle was blown with about 10 seconds left in the clock, giving Glenn ample time to call a timeout.

Nope. He let the clock run out—again.

With the line of scrimmage just 54 yards away from the goal line, the Jets were close enough to at least give Fields a Hail Mary attempt. But if Glenn called timeout at 10 or even nine seconds, the Jets still had enough time to try and set up a field goal attempt if they could hit a throw near the sidelines or draw a penalty.

Instead, the Jets’ head coach decided to just… give up.

Glenn was immediately given a chance to prove that he had learned from his mistake against Denver, and he made an even more egregious decision in the same spot. It raises serious questions about whether Glenn is actually capable of fixing his issues with time to learn, or if he’s just not cut out for this job.

Mistake #2: Conservative approach with game on the line

Glenn is quickly stockpiling a giant heap of fourth-down punt decisions in situations where he should have kept the offense on the field.

With 1:55 remaining in the fourth quarter, Tyrod Taylor threw an incomplete pass, bringing the Jets to fourth-and-10 at their own 14-yard line while trailing 13-6. They had all three timeouts.

Glenn elected to punt. Carolina iced the game and New York never got the ball back.

You can see the logic behind Glenn’s decision. With all three timeouts in his pocket and the Jets’ defense allowing just three points in the second half, it was understandable that he preferred to let his defense try and get the ball back with over a minute left on the clock.

What Glenn overlooked, though, were the field-position and scoreboard aspects of this decision.

The Jets punted from their own 14-yard line while trailing by a touchdown. With this context included, the idea of punting becomes much less appealing when you start thinking multiple steps ahead.

Glenn should have expected Carolina’s offense to be set up a few yards shy of midfield, and that’s what happened; Austin McNamara’s net-43-yard punt set the Panthers up at their own 43-yard line. This means that even if the Panthers gained zero yards on their possession, they would be positioned for a punt that could pin the Jets inside their own 10-yard line.

So, even if the Jets stopped Carolina and got the ball back through a punt, they would be forced to drive nearly the full length of the field for a touchdown, potentially with no timeouts if Carolina played their cards right. That would be daunting for any NFL team (outside of Kansas City and Buffalo), let alone one that had not scored a touchdown all day.

Thus, the Jets’ best bet was to just keep the offense on the field and try to win the game while they still had 1:55 left and three timeouts. Giving the ball away would, even in a best-case scenario, leave the Jets in the same spot with worse odds, and that’s only if they got the stop, which is far from guaranteed (as we saw).

Analytical models strongly suggested that Glenn should have gone for it instead of punting.

This decision highlights the flaws in Glenn’s thinking and his inability to quickly process the numerous factors at play.

Glenn’s logic worked like this: We’re down by one score, we have three timeouts, there’s 1:55 left, and our defense is playing great… so, let’s punt. That would be a great thought process—if the Jets were down by three and punting from much closer to midfield. By failing to think multiple steps ahead, Glenn made the suboptimal decision, causing him to concede the Jets’ last chance at winning the game.

Would the Jets have converted that fourth-and-10 and mounted a game-winning drive? Probably not, although nobody can say that for sure. The Jets’ offensive struggles do not let Glenn off the hook for making the wrong call. This is something entirely within his control, making it the exact type of decision that can be attributed to him.

A head coach’s role in their team’s win-loss record is difficult to quantify, but game management is 100% his responsibility. When a coach consistently makes calls that decrease his team’s chances of winning, he is a liability to the franchise.

Glenn should primarily be judged on things that are directly attributable to him. Nothing fits more snugly into that category than game management, and in that phase, he continues to look lost on a weekly basis.