This Has HUGE Implications For The Jets...

For 30 minutes on Sunday, Aaron Glenn's Jets looked like a team that could compete with anybody. They led the Chiefs 6-0 after the first quarter and went into halftime down just 14-12. Then Kansas City scored 21 straight points, and the Jets never scored again. 35-12, the worst loss of the season, and a 2-7 record. After the game, on the lull that keeps on showing up after halftime, Glenn said this, a lot of thinking to do, a lot of thinking to do. It did not look like a team that was fighting to save Aaron Glenn's job, Zach Rosenblatt of The Athletic wrote from Kansas City, and at this point he said, it's unsavable anyway. Then, Monday morning, before Glenn even got back to the podium, the news broke that Will McDonald had demanded to be traded. Will McDonald wanted out of New York, and the trade deadline has now come and gone, and he's still here. So the real question isn't whether this is over for an Aaron Glenn, because it is a definitive yes on that. It's why he's still the head coach at this juncture of the Jets' season, and how long this dim, unsustainable reality can last. When Glenn did get back to the podium on Monday, one of the first things he defended was his players. I would never question the effort, he said. The effort part is not in question. A week earlier, after the Raiders' loss, DeMario Davis backed him from the locker room. I believe in him. The guys believe in him. Glenn's own read on Sunday was that the plan worked for a half. He said the Jets were on point with their keys to victory in the first half, and then just didn't play up to par in the second. The scoreboard has been saying something else for a month, though. Sunday made it four losses in a row. In fact, in the last three games, the defense gave up 28 points to Miami, a team that had never had a lead at any point in the season going into that game. Then 38 to Las Vegas, a team coming off four straight losses, and 35 to Kansas City. That's 101 points in three weeks, and that's about 34 a game, from a team whose head coach calls defensive play-calling his personal superpower. So Monday, Glenn was asked about that too. What do you think about giving up the play calling? He said, I would never say never. I'm looking at everything. A head coach who won't rule out giving up his personal superpower, nine games into year two, knows the clock is ticking on him. He was already trying new things on Sunday. Fullback Andrew Beck kicked off for the Jets, and Glenn called it out-of-the-box thinking, with one mishap when a kick went out of bounds. To be fair, Garrett Wilson missed the game with a concussion, and Geno Smith finished 18-32 for 165 yards without him. But this team had been losing close all year. Five of its seven losses were one-score games. Kansas City was a two-point game at halftime and a 23-point loss at the end. That isn't losing close anymore. Brian Costello of the New York Post put it in one line Monday morning. Aaron Glenn looks like a coach out of answers. And the side of the ball that fell apart? ...is the one that Aaron Glenn was hired to fix. Glenn came from the Detroit Lions to the Jets as this defensive wizard, and the defense was supposed to be the main thing that he was going to fix on the Jets. Although in his 26 games as head coach, the Jets have just one interception. Minka Fitzpatrick has it, this season. In all 17 games last year, the Jets didn't pick off a single pass. When the count was 1 in 25 games, Rosenblatt checked Pro Football Reference and found it was the fewest over any 25-game stretch in the NFL since 1932. That's 94 years since any defense went that long picking off just that few passes. The point says the same thing. The Jets have allowed 223 this season. Tied for the sixth most in the league. Last year, they gave up 503 in a 3-14 season. So the leaks have been there since the day he walked in. Then there's the end of the first half that we've all heard about. The two minutes where a coach's clock management and play calls show up most. And for Glenn... His flaws have showed up the most. Through Week 7, the Jets have been outscored 107-6 in the last two minutes of the first half under Glenn. Timeouts, the clock, and the calls in those two minutes belong to the head coach, and that 107-6 number has followed Glenn all season. Stack it all up, and the defense has one interception, 223 points allowed, and 101 in the last three games alone. The defense was also supposed to be where young players grew up around Glenn. And one of them just asked to leave. Will McDonald had asked the Jets for a trade, first reported by Ian Rappaport and confirmed Monday by Brian Costello of the New York Post. This has been a long time coming in Costello's words. McDonald never felt like a fit for Glenn, and his playing time has dwindled. He's played under half of the defensive snaps in all but three games this season. As his role shrank, he tried talking to the coaches about how to get back on the field. And Rosenblatt reports he came away feeling this staff didn't believe in him anymore. He has three sacks, while David Bailey leads the team with seven and a half. The Jets still picked up his fifth-year option, which guarantees him $13.75 million in 2027. Other teams called the Jets about offers in the second-round range, Costello reports, and the Jets turned them down. Glenn's answer on Monday before the trade deadline came and went was brief. I just know we're in the business of keeping good players. Will's going to be here. What makes it sting is how this started. At Glenn's first training camp, he was asked why McDonald hadn't reached his full potential yet. His answer was one word, coaching. McDonald's best season was 2024, under Robert Sala and Jeff Ulbrich. And now the coach who blamed the coaching is the coach he wants to get away from. That's the player the Jets are refusing to move right now. Ultimately decided not to move for a head coach who might not be here when that option year starts. On every other deal, Glenn says the plan is simple. Never say never, but right now we're going to stay pat. The deadline was Tuesday afternoon and McDonald is still here. Holding a player who wants out to save a season that's already 2-7 is ridiculous to me. Why Glenn is coaching to win now, why he's still here at all, is also curious. So if the defense is broken, and his own players are asking out, why does Aaron Glenn still have a job? And guys, if you want the Jets every day while all of this plays out, and it's miserable to watch it play out, but it is dramatic and interesting, please do hit subscribe. We're at 1,000, excuse me, we're at 8,195 subscribers, and it's completely free. The first reason that Aaron Glenn is still here, by the way, is the owner. Woody Johnson has owned the Jets since 2000, and in all that time, he's fired exactly one head coach during a season. That was Robert Saleh, five games into 2024, with the Jets at 2-3. Back on October 30th, Rosenblatt wrote that Johnson wants Glenn to succeed and is close with him, and that he didn't expect an in-season firing. The second reason is money. Johnson made Glenn the highest-paid head coach in team history. There was $40 million or more left on the last four years of his deal in January, according to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk. Firing him now would mean paying a coach not to coach. And Woody's second in-season firing in just three seasons. Glenn has already used his reset. By the end of January, nine of his 21 assistants from year one were gone, defensive coordinator Steve Wilks included. The third reason is that there's nobody to hand it to. If Glenn goes, defensive coordinator Brian Jeff Ulbrich would take over the play calling. And he's never called plays. Frank Reich is the offensive coordinator. But Rosenblatt wrote that his approval rating has sunk as low as Glenn's and Chris Banjo at 36 is seen as too early for a head job and his department, special teams, has taken a major step back. And if you were hoping for a reunion, Rosenblatt wrote that he would not expect the Jets to hire Rex Ryan as the interim either. Glenn himself says that none of this crosses his mind. A week ago he said, My job is improving this team. That's the only thing that I think about. Everyone else is thinking about it. Heading into Week 8, CBS Sports had him No. 2 on its list of the hottest seats in the league, behind only Shane Steichen. The betting markets have actually cooled on him. On Kalshi's market for the next NFL head coach, Glenn is at 16%, down 8 points. Nick Sirianni leads that market at 38%, more than twice Glenn's number. The people betting money say somebody else goes first. The people watching the games aren't so sure. Rosenblatt also laid out how Glenn saves his job for 2027. Win close games, fix the two-minute drill in third downs, and win in the division. Glenn has coached eight games against the AFC East, and he's lost all eight. After Sunday's loss, he said it's all about the process and the belief, and that the Jets have shown spurts where they can play at a high level. Sunday at 1 o'clock, the Buffalo Bills come to MetLife, and spurts won't be enough. The Jets are already five games back in the division, with eight games left to play. It's over. The Kansas City second half was the room telling you. The reason? His side of the ball. One interception in 26 games for a coach who is a former player who played cornerback. The doubt? $40 million and Woody's unwavering loyalty so far, which is why Aaron Glenn is probably going to finish this season at the very least. My call is that no interim coach is just going to magically wave a magic wand and fix this this season. So, Let Aaron Glenn play it out and decide in January, and it's overwhelmingly likely that that decision can and should be to can him. But let's watch Buffalo on Sunday and whether Will McDonald, who we know is now a Jet, will actually decide to suit up. So where are you on this? Should the Jets fire Aaron Glenn now or let him finish the season? Tell me in the comments. That's where it stands for the Jets right now. I'll see you in the next one.