Jets players remain in step with coach Aaron Glenn amid 0-5 start
Jets head coach Aaron Glenn, left, and Jarvis Brownlee, Jr. before playing the Dallas Cowboys at MetLife Stadium on Oct. 5, 2025. Credit: Ed Murray
Aaron Glenn is the first Jets coach to begin his career with five straight losses, but he hasn’t lost the locker room.
Jets players have expressed faith and confidence in Glenn and how he’s trying to change the culture and create a foundation that eventually leads to wins.
“He commands the room,” defensive tackle Harrison Phillips said in a Zoom call on Monday. “He has a very dominant presence. When he looks you in the eyes, it’s like he’s looking into your soul. You can feel the emotion and the passion about what he’s saying. You can tell that he genuinely cares and he really, really, really believes. What he’s saying, he actually believes in.”
That makes it easy for players to follow Glenn, according to Phillips.
“The guy who’s been here as a player, who’s had amazing success as a player and coach, seen as much football as anyone, he sees what we have,” he said. “He sees what we’re going through and he believes in it. So why shouldn’t you?”
Others have shared similar sentiments.
After the Jets’ embarrassing 37-22 loss to the Cowboys on Sunday, Garrett Wilson said “the foundation is there” and they’re “being coached the right way.”
Center Josh Myers said everyone “has a ton of respect and faith in AG as a coach.” He added that everyone believes “we have the ability to be a good team.”
It hasn’t shown up when it counts, though.
The Jets, who flew to London on Monday night for this week’s game against Denver, are the NFL’s only winless team. They’re also the first team in NFL history to record zero takeaways after five games. The Jets have turned the football over eight times, leading to 41 points.
They are headed toward their 15th consecutive year of missing the postseason. No team has ever started 0-5 and made the playoffs.
Glenn said in February at the NFL Combine, “We’re here to win now.” That hasn’t happened. But Glenn, who has been a part of rebuilds as a player and coach, isn’t budging on how he believes he can turn around the Jets and help them become a winning team.
“I’m not thinking about the Super Bowl. I’m not thinking about playoffs. I’m thinking about building a foundation,” he said. “That’s exactly what we’re doing.
“Yes, we are here to win now. Have we done it yet? No, we haven’t. I understand that. We’re 0-and-5, and we own that. But I do know this: That’s not going to stop us from doing everything we can to win now.”
There are many Jets who have been a part of nothing but losing seasons, prominent players including Wilson, Quinnen Williams, Sauce Gardner, Breece Hall and Jamien Sherwood. They carry scars from being a Jet. But Glenn isn’t worried about players letting that affect them.
“I know for a fact our players have bought into what we’re doing,” he said. “That’s why I know it’s not a ‘here we go again.’ ”
Phillips, however, said scars is a good word to use for this situation. He likened it to having surgery and needing to “break up” the scar tissue.
Having been on teams that went from missing the playoffs to contenders in Buffalo and Minnesota, Phillips said it takes time.
“It is a very painful process,” he said. “We just continue to do what we are building and eventually it’ll crack and shatter.”
Phillips also asked that the frustrated and long-suffering fans show some patience as the Jets work on fixing their problems. He said brand-new regimes rarely have immediate success.
“I think that they should have a little bit of grace. It takes a long time to rebuild a program,” he said. “You have to mold and beat in what the culture is going to be to players to get them out of the past, to get them out of scarred ways, to get them out of places they’ve been before.”
London calling
Glenn went to London as a player and coach with the Saints. He chose to practice there all week rather than arrive on Thursday because “we always went early, and I always felt that guys got acclimated a lot quicker when you go early.”
Two-minute drill
The Jets announced Monday night that wide receiver Allen Lazard did not travel to London with them because of personal reasons but might rejoin the team later in the week. Jermaine Johnson (ankle) and Kene Nwangwu (hamstring) traveled with the team. Michael Carter II (concussion protocol) didn’t. He might join the Jets later in the week if he’s cleared.
Al Iannazzone covers the Jets for Newsday after spending nearly two decades on the NBA beat with Knicks and Nets.
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