When Aaron Glenn took over, plenty of the conversation centered on what kind of coach he was, not just what kind of team he was inheriting. The former first-round pick brought the kind of feel-good storyline that naturally comes with a former Jet trying to help drag the franchise out of the longest drought in North American sports and back into the playoffs.
But there was also the familiar complaint: not another defensive coach.
That argument has followed the Jets for years. Since 1995, the team has had 11 head coaches, including interim hires, and only two came from the offensive side of the ball.
Those two were Rich Kotite, who went 4-28 with the Jets, and Adam Gase, who finished 9-23. Put together, the offensive hires are 13-51, while the defensive hires are 205-254.
The broader league trend has leaned the other way. Since 2000, 16 different coaches have won the Lombardi Trophy, and 11 of them came from offense. Still, the usual expectation remains the same when a defensive coach gets the job: his side of the ball should be the reliable part.
That was the hope with Glenn, just as it was with Robert Saleh. In Saleh’s first season, the Jets allowed 29.6 points per game and ranked 32nd in the league.
In his second year, they jumped to second at 18.6 points per game, and in 2023 they stayed in the top 10 while allowing 20.9. Saleh’s problem was never really the defense.
It was the other side of the ball.
Glenn’s issue, at least so far, is that his defense has become the concern.
There were early signs that maybe the turnaround was coming. For a couple of weeks, it looked like the Jets might be headed toward the kind of defensive reset Saleh once delivered.
They allowed 30 points through the first two weeks, then came the interception against Tyson Bagent to break the streak and the eight-sack game against Deshaun Watson. Since then, though, the numbers have gone the wrong way fast.
The Jets have allowed 250-plus yards in seven of eight games. They’ve given up 200-plus passing yards in six of eight.
They’ve surrendered 100-plus rushing yards in four of eight and 150-plus rushing yards in two of eight. They’ve forced turnovers in five of eight games, but they’re still the only team in the league with just one interception.
They’ve also allowed 14 passing touchdowns, which sits in the bottom 10, and 62 rushing first downs, a bottom-five figure.
The pressure numbers aren’t much prettier. Despite blitzing at the sixth-highest rate, the Jets rank 19th in pressure rate.
There are some positives in the mix. The Jets have been one of the better tackling teams in the NFL, with 29 missed tackles, good for fifth best.
They’ve allowed only 1,552 passing yards, which ranks ninth. They’re also 11th in the league with 20 sacks.
But that sack total comes with a big asterisk. A huge chunk of it was piled up in that outlier performance against Cleveland, a game they haven’t come close to matching since.
When 40% of your season sacks come in one game, it’s hard to treat that as the norm. In five of eight games this season, the Jets have had two sacks or fewer, and that tells a much clearer story.
Injuries have played a part, too. Minkah signed an extension and has missed some games.
David Onyemata, a major offseason addition, has been out since his Week 2 injury against Green Bay. David Bailey missed this week, T’Vondre Sweat was out this week, and there are others as well.
But the Jets are hardly alone in dealing with injuries.
What makes this harder to brush off is the recent stretch. Over the last three weeks, the Jets have faced two offenses that shouldn’t be overwhelming anybody in the Dolphins and Raiders, and still gave up 66 points combined.
In that same three-game span, the Jets own the 31st-ranked defense in opponent scoring. Only the Raiders have been worse, and the Jets just lost to them.
So this isn’t a one-off. It’s a pattern.
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