A disastrous first season has already put Aaron Glenn in a tough spot with the Jets, but one former assistant says the late-year collapse was something even he couldn’t quite process.
Speaking with The Athletic’s Jonathan Jones, an anonymous assistant from last year’s staff described New York’s December run as the “worst football experience I’ve ever had.”
That stretch capped a miserable 2025 for the Jets in Glenn’s first year at the controls. The team finished with its worst record since going 2-14 in 2020, opened the season 0-7, and then closed the year with the worst December point differential in NFL history. It was a season that never found footing.
The final weeks were especially rough. New York turned to undrafted rookie quarterback Brady Cook to start the last four games, and the results fed into that historic point-differential mark.
Cook’s 28.6 grade from Pro Football Focus was the lowest single-season grade ever for a quarterback with at least 150 dropbacks since PFF began tracking in 2006. His 1-to-13 ratio of big-time throws to turnover-worthy throws was also the worst in the PFF era.
Still, not every voice from inside the building pinned everything on Glenn. Another assistant offered a different read, arguing the roster itself made the job extremely difficult from the start.
“The team that A.G. took over, they were a five-win team, and we got rid of all the best players,” he said. “I’m not saying those weren’t the right decisions. You had an old roster, but you’ve got to be realistic and live with the consequences.”
Glenn’s issues weren’t limited to the roster, though. Even without calling plays in his first season as head coach, he repeatedly drew criticism for game-management decisions.
The Jets are now betting that a second year will look very different. That’s not a small leap of faith, either.
Since 1980, only four coaches have taken a team to the playoffs after starting 0-6 in their first season with the franchise: Jimmy Johnson, Kyle Shanahan, Ben Johnson and Zac Taylor. Johnson is the only defensive coach in that group.
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