Tom Rock: Jets owner Woody Johnson may need to get more involved with this mess
Jets owner Woody Johnson looks on from the sidelines prior to a game against the Bears on Oct. 4, 2026 in Chicago. Credit: Getty Images/Michael Reaves
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. – Woody Johnson has made a concerted effort in the past few years to be less of a meddling owner. Well, at the very least he wants to not be perceived as one. Whatever whims and opinions he has about the Jets are bound to trickle down through the franchise whether he intends them to or not. The point is that he would rather be seen as a background figure in the day-to-day operation than as a micromanaging string-puller.
So far he hasn’t had to break character in that regard.
But we may be getting close to the point when he’ll have a decision to make.
About his head coach Aaron Glenn, yes. About himself and how he conducts his business, too.
The Jets are 1-3, have lost three straight games, and head into Sunday’s home game against the Browns with the arrow decidedly pointing down on their prospects to change that trajectory. Dips and drops have a way of turning into nosedives around here, and there already is growing discontent from outside the team’s headquarters regarding Glenn’s performance early in this second season on the job. At some point, if things don’t change abruptly, that frustration could easily seep inside the walls. And once organizational doubt is there, the head coach usually leaves before it does.
Glenn seems to understand that. He was asked on Wednesday about rookie David Bailey, the highly-touted first-round pick linebacker who is having a slow statistical start to his own career.
“With any sports figure – it doesn’t matter if it’s football, basketball, baseball – the two things you have to always be able to handle are criticism and expectations,” Glenn said. “You can’t get away from it. Same thing as a head coach. Criticism and expectations.”
He added: “You have to focus on who you are, focus on what your process is, and don’t let anything deter you from what you are trying to accomplish. You start to see that person overcome when you really don’t worry about what is going on outside.”
Wait, who were we talking about again? Because it sure felt like Glenn was talking about himself.
Glenn also said he has had “very positive” and “very productive” conversations with Johnson.
“That’s the beauty of our relationship, being able to have open dialogue with each other, throwing everything on the table,” he said. “There is also a trust factor there. I’m fortunate to be able to have the relationship I do have with the owner of this football team.”
You can say that again.
Still, this doesn’t feel like a win-or-else game for Glenn. We’re not quite at that point, even though losing to another punchline NFL franchise like the Browns - who have somehow turned their season around under a new head coach and come here on a three-game winning streak with a positive outlook - would be a blow. Cleveland could be one of the best stories in the NFL right now if their quarterback wasn’t seen as one of the worst people in it.
The narrative they are forming as a team that is gaining respect through gritty physical play that embodies their head coach, though, is one the Jets desperately want for themselves. One they thought Glenn would bring. So far, he has not.
Of the seven head coaches hired along with Glenn in 2025, no one has a worse winning percentage in that job than Glenn (4-17, .190), and the one guy who had the same record as he did last season – Pete Carroll with the 3-14 Raiders – was fired after one year.
This year saw 10 teams hire new head coaches. Only two of them – Robert Saleh in Tennessee and Jeff Hafley in Miami – have records worse than Glenn’s 1-3 mark this season. Five of them are 3-1, including Todd Monken and the Browns.
At this point in his career, 21 games in, only one head coach of the 15 who made it this far in Jets history has had a worse record. When you are challenging Rich Kotite, who was 3-18, for that kind of ineptitude, it’s a bad situation.
That is why — if Glenn doesn’t start showing positive results soon — his future will be decided in the second-floor oak boardroom tables he referenced at 1 Jets Drive.
And then it will be up Johnson to decide if he has the mettle to meddle.
What would the old Woody do? What will the new Woody do?
Is there actually a difference?
Glenn has a few things working in his favor, at least in the short term.
He has a close personal relationship with Johnson that reaches back to the days when he was a Jets player.
He works for an owner who might not have the stomach for the kind of publicity that a second in-season firing in three years would bring, nevermind the financial costs of doing so.
He has not lost the locker room and the players seem to still be invested in performing for him. Said wide receiver Garrett Wilson on Wednesday: “I take a lot of pride in playing my role to make sure that everyone in this facility’s job security is at an all-time high.”
And he is part of a franchise that clearly has at least one eye looking ahead to the 2027 draft and beginning a new era with a new quarterback next season. A new coach will very likely be part of that pivot, but that’s a January problem.
Those pieces combined could save him from getting axed on some random Monday morning in the next three months.
Of course, Glenn could just win a few games to cool things off. However, that seems less likely at this point than a combination of the first four scenarios.
If the losing keeps happening -- and if the visuals of the ways they lose keep exacerbating the way they have been -- all bets are off. Johnson may have no choice but to step in and stop this fight and start getting ready for the next one.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
