Aaron Glenn woke up ahead of his first Jets training camp practice around 3:30 a.m. on Wednesday.
He has been preparing for this moment since he was the Saints‘ defensive backs coach (2016-20).
Glenn’s wife, Devaney, sent an encouraging text message to the coach on his first day of training camp.
“‘Just be A.G.,’ and that’s who I’m going to be,” Glenn said. “Right, wrong, and indifferent. Nothing is going to change about how I operate, nothing is going to change about the way I think.
“When I woke up at that time, I didn’t go back to sleep because now we have this whole day where we have things that we got to get done. I’m looking forward to every part of every minute, every hour of what we have going on today because it’s a day of teaching and I want to make sure I go through that the right way.”
It was a quiet and light first day of training camp for the Jets. The practice lasted 90 minutes, and without pads, but Glenn was in the middle of everything.
Just as he did during organized team activities and mandatory minicamp in the spring, Glenn was seen moving from position group to position group, ensuring players executed their assignments as instructed by the coaches.
“Usually on the first day, that’s when most of the mistakes happen, most of the penalties happen,” Glenn said. “But I thought our guys did a really good job. Listen, we have a long way to go and we know that. But today, I thought it was pretty good.”
Glenn is tasked with trying to turn around a Jets organization that’s failed to make the playoffs since 2010, which is the longest postseason drought in North American sports. The Jets have also had nine consecutive losing seasons.
Once the pads do come on, the Jets are expected to be a more physical team, which is part of the culture Glenn is trying to bring. With that, every player will have to compete for their job. Even the starters from the previous Robert Saleh/Joe Douglas regime.
“He’s somebody who wants to establish a culture and he’s definitely doing that,” Jets center Joe Tippmann said. “You know, through our meetings, through practice, through OTAs and it’s just been great getting to kind of get the ball rolling with that.”
Glenn knows the history of the Jets better than just about anyone. He played for the organization from 1994-2001 and was a two-time Pro Bowler. In addition, Glenn also knows how much the Jets fans have suffered the last decade-plus.
In 1998, Glenn was a player on the Jets team who finished a game away from reaching the Super Bowl after losing to the Broncos in the AFC Championship.
Glenn’s mentor is Bill Parcells, who was his coach with the Jets at the time. Nearly three decades later, Glenn has unfinished business to help the Jets reach their goals, which they were unable to achieve when he was on the roster. During his introductory press conference in January, Glenn said about the 1998 loss in the AFC Championship, “I’ll be damned if I’m not going to come back here and get that back.”
After he was done playing, Glenn called Parcells to tell him he wanted to get into coaching. However, Parcells encouraged him to start as a scout before becoming a coach.
For two seasons, Glenn worked as a scout for the Jets. From there, Glenn climbed the ladder, progressing from assistant defensive backs coach for the Browns to defensive backs coach for the Saints, to Lions’ defensive coordinator in 2021.
The task of changing the Jets culture won’t be an easy one, but one Glenn has experienced both as a player and a coach. He came from a Lions organization that went from a 3-13-1 record in 2021 to a 15-2 mark last season under Dan Campbell.
No one knows how his regime will ultimately turn out, but the Jets players believe in Glenn’s vision and plan early during his tenure.
“AG is great,” Jets quarterback Justin Fields said. “He’s awesome, super person when it comes to not only speaking to me, not only our relationship, but, you know, everyone’s relationship.
“He’s straightforward with it. He keeps it very blunt. I think our relationship is very good when it comes to that, personally and just being on the same team, being on the same page on how we want to lead this team.”
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