Jaguars Head Coach Search: Pros and Cons to Aaron Glenn's Candidacy

The Jacksonville Jaguars find themselves in a familiar spot in 2025: looking for a new head coach.

Jaguars owner Shad Khan has gone through five head coaches in 13 years, with each of Mike Mularkey, Gus Bradley, Doug Marrone, Urban Meyer, and Doug Pederson all coming up short in the process.

With the Jaguars search for their next coach now up and running, we are going to take a look at what each candidate brings to the table, their backgrounds and what potential drawbacks could be to their candidacy.

We have already talked about Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson and Tampa Bay offensive coordinator Liam Coen.

Now, we move onto Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn.

Background

Houston Stallions (2012): General manager

New York Jets (2012-2013): Scout

Cleveland Browns (2014-2015): Assistant defensive backs coach

New Orleans Saints (2016-2020): Defensive backs coach

Detroit Lions (2021-Present): Defensive coordinator

Pros

First and foremost, Glenn is an elite leader. The way coaches and players talk about him in Detroit matches the way his former teammates have spoken about him, and it is clear that Glenn has the goods when it comes to being able to lead a locker room and ultimately a franchise. If you are looking for a "leader of men" style coach, he is near the very top of the list.

Outside of the way Glenn forges relationships, he also has a long track record of being able to develop players in the secondary. A former NFL defensive back himself, Glenn had a direct hand in the development of Marshon Lattimore and Marcus Williams in New Orleans and he has carried this over to Detroit with development from players like Kerby Joseph, Terrion Arnold, and Amik Robertson.

Despite the Lions facing a mountain of injuries on the defensive side of the ball this year, Glenn still has the unit near the top-10. Just a few weeks ago, he took a hobbled Lions unit into a game against a red-hot Minnesota Vikings offense and, frankly, dominated them in every facet. Even without all his pieces, Glenn has the Lions playing hard.

Glenn is also the rare head coach candidate who has experience in the scouting world as well. Glenn got his start in the NFL as a scout, giving him another way to view the game and overall team-building process.

Cons

If there is a legitimate criticism of Glenn, it might be that it took him until 2024 to truly take the Lions' defense to another level. He took over the worst defense in the league in 2021 and it takes a few years to turn a unit completely around, but there is a true lack of sample size on Glenn leading an elite defensive unit.

There is also the fact that Glenn, as a defensive coach, would have to be able to attract a solid offensive staff consistently. It is the age old question that all defensive head coaches face. If you hire an offensive coordinator who excells, he is eventually going to get plucked by another team, leading to a potentially never-ending cycle at the key role.

Overall though, Glenn appears to check most boxes as a head coach candidate. The only thing he is truly missing is a long track record of success leading top defenses, but that has more to do with the situation he walked into in Detroit than anything else.

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