Aaron Glenn's Rebuilt Jets Staff Only Making His Seat Hotter

When Aaron Glenn was first hired as head coach of the New York Jets, his chief calling card was his perceived ability to bring with him a highly touted staff. As a former player and well-liked coach, people thought Glenn would be able to bring with him great assistants to build the team.

Through two years, though, the opposite has happened. After a three-win season in 2025, Glenn revamped almost his entire coaching staff, including both offensive and defensive coordinators and up to five positional assistants.

Hard to say he can build a good staff.

As the 2026 Jets continue to bungle through a current 2-6 mark, some of the answers from Glenn's assistants have already gotten worse.

And it all came to a head on Thursday.

Jets' assistants failing Glenn

On offense, the Jets believed going with a veteran guy like Frank Reich would be the right move for the organization. His experience with talented units and veteran quarterbacks was seen as a major positive.

Through eight games, though, it's clear that the Jets' talent is keeping things afloat and coaching is only holding them back.

It's even worse on the defensive side.

Brian Duker is the Jets' defensive coordinator but he doesn't call plays. That distinction is in the hands of Glenn as a defensive-minded individual. Duker's job is to help with gameplanning and adjustments—two things the Jets defense has struggled with the most.

His answer on Thursday on the team defending tight ends—a problem over the last several weeks—only raised further eyebrows on the coaching staff. Last week, Brock Bowers caught two touchdown passes en route to a Raiders win. Going against the Kansas City Chiefs and Travis Kelce could add consistent problems.

But Duker saw things differently.

"I would not anticipate reading their mind on that, so we'll wait and see how that goes," Duker said. "He [Kelce] probably is used a little bit differently."

What? The Jets may not prepare or assume that the Chiefs will use Kelce in a similar way to Bowers simply because they are different players? Kansas City's coaching staff remains one of the best in the league. You better believe they'll have a plan to use their tight ends in a similar way to how the Raiders did.

The fact the Jets are even thinking they may not is a failure in preparation, coaching and imagination.

And it only highlights how bad the staff has been so far in 2026.

Glenn is not at fault for a slip-up answer like this. All coaches have answers they would probably want back. But as a head coach who reshaped his staff specifically because he wanted more people that thought like he did, a 2-6 start makes his seat among the league's hottest.

And as these slip-ups continue, it only paints a further picture of his staff being unprepared for the modern NFL when it matters most.

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