One Key Way Aaron Glenn Can Learn From Past Mistakes Ahead of Year 2 With Jets

It's time for New York's head coach to learn from what went wrong.

It's time for Jets HC Aaron Glenn to learn from the past to improve in the future. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Jets head coach Aaron Glenn needs to learn from the mistakes he made last season. In some ways, he has already done so.

In other ways, the true test of learning from those mistakes has begun now that the Jets have opened their second training camp under the former Pro Bowl cornerback, with rookies reporting over the weekend. At the very least, New York's roster believes they have a different coach than the one who led the team last year.

"I think AG learned a lot from his first year—good, bad and ugly," Jets safety Minkah Fitzpatrick said during OTAs. "And I think he wants to not just show the world, but show us that he's a guy that wants to win. He knows how to win."

Minkah Fitzpatrick—who was acquired from the Dolphins in the offseason—has already expressed his faith in Jets HC Aaron Glenn. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

In-game decision-making and defensive play-calling will be the name of the game for Glenn this year. His Jets need to be able to win games and look good doing it throughout the year to save his job.

In order for the team to win, though, Glenn will have to stay out of the headlines.

It remains the one thing that he must move past in Year 2.

Aaron Glenn's big test: avoid being a distraction in Year 2

As a former NFL player, Glenn isn't someone to worry about leaving a juicy quote out into the public. During the NFL Scouting Combine, he proudly stated that play-calling was his "superpower" as a way to defend the decision on picking up the role for 2026.

That comment went viral, and now will follow him for the remainder of the season.

The 54-year-old head coach must make sure that he doesn't fall into that trap during camp. Even if he fell into that hole multiple times last year.

During his first training camp, Glenn was a gold mine for quotes. He talked about how "coaching" and teaching were the most important parts of training camp. He also wanted to build a team that the fanbase "would be proud of."

Aaron Glenn must do a better job of limiting what he says in front of a microphone if he doesn't want it to come back to haunt the Jets. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

All those quotes not only came back to bite Glenn throughout the regular season, but he also made a habit of walking back many of those promises to the fanbase.

That cannot happen at this year's training camp, which reaches the next stage when veterans report on Tuesday. And the best way to avoid it is to ignore the whole situation altogether. It means keeping quotes to the most basic forms and focusing only on the work ahead in training the team's improved roster.

In simpler words, Glenn has to learn from the mistakes he made in the past.

“There are things that I know I have to improve on,” Glenn said at the start of the offseason. “There are mistakes that I made that I won’t replicate going into this season.”

Glenn's Jets are much improved from a talent perspective this year, which could lead the coach to believe more in himself than during his rookie campaign. That said, if the organization is going to take the next step after the last 15 years of losing, talent isn't the only thing they'll need.

More importantly, the Jets need a coach who knows how to win and act like a winner.

Staying out of the news cycle would certainly help as well.