Former Lions DC Off to Historically Bad Start With Jets

Aaron Glenn is coaching NFL team without any wins.

New York Jets Head Coach, Aaron Glenn, is shown during the second quarter | Kevin R. Wexler-NorthJersey.com / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

On Sunday, right around when the Detroit Lions were approaching kickoff to their contest against the Cincinnati Bengals, former defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn’s New York Jets dropped to 0-5.

The Jets lost, 37-22, with a 16-point fourth quarter putting window dressing on a dismal day during their matchup with the Dallas Cowboys.

Glenn’s Jets gave up a season-high 37 points on defense, and that was not the only mark being recorded for his tenure. He became the first head coach to start his career 0-5 without forcing a single defensive turnover.

In fact, zero defensive takeaways through five games has never occurred since turnovers became an official stat in 1933.

This comes on the heels of a 2024 season where Glenn’s Lions defense was ranked tenth in the league for turnovers forced. Detroit averaged just under 1.5 takeaways per contest with Glenn manning the defense last year, stealing the ball away 24 times.

Meanwhile, when he went to New York, he inherited a team that recorded the ninth-fewest turnovers in 2024, averaging one takeaway per game, ending the season with 17. One of Glenn’s first attempts to bolster the defense was signing Andre Cisco to a $10 million deal, and through five games, he has 26 tackles but has only gotten his hands on one pass, a deflection.

Worse yet, Glenn’s Jets have yet to go through a contest and allow less than 27 points. On average, the AFC East squad giving up 31.7 points per contest. This puts the Jets defense on pace to yield a franchise-record 539 points in 2025.

Last season, they were in middle of the road, allowing 23.8 points per contest.

Glenn was in a similar spot back in 2021

During his first season in Detroit, the Lions ranked in the bottom ten for turnovers forced and needed some restructuring. Glenn alluded to this during his post-game press conference, voicing confidence in Jets DC Steve Wilks. Glen stated he would not take over defensive play calling duties.

"I know that's going to be the thing that everyone says, but I always go back to my first year in Detroit when we struggled on defense and our head coach had a lot of confidence in me, making sure we get it right," said Glenn, alluding to 2021 under Dan Campbell. "I feel the exact same way. I have a lot of confidence in Wilks. He's done a lot of great things in this league as a defense coordinator and I'm going to allow him to do his job. I am."