Gang Green Nation
The Jets defense will be getting after the quarterback
Like any head coach, there will be many things that come to define the “Aaron Glenn Era” of New York Jets football. Some of those things will be beyond his control, such as a costly incorrect call by a referee. Other things will be within his control, such as the defense that he chooses to call.
One key aspect Glenn seems to value is aggression. This starts with what he expects from his players.
As quoted by Harrison Glazer (@NYJetsTFMedia), Glenn said:
“Our philosophy is we play with maximum effort, & there’s 3 elements of effort: burst, speed, & finish. If I don’t see one of those, you just went against our standard. If I don’t see all 3 of them, you’re a traitor, go play for somebody else. The next one is violence, we want to bring that back, cause the NFL has brought that out of the game, but we’re gonna bring that back the right way. We understand the rules. You can be violent in this game still, even with the rules. Last we want to take the ball away. I’m talking about punching the ball out, I’m talking about INTs. When you put all those together, man that’s an ass kicker to me, & that’s what we try to be on the field. At the end of the day, you’re gonna know you were in a fight. That’s an a** kicker.”
It also extends to how he calls plays. Specifically, Aaron Glenn’s Detroit Lions defense was among the most blitz-happy in the league with a blitz per drop back rate of 34.6% that ranked second to only the Minnesota Vikings. For context, the New York Jets defense had a blitz per drop back rate of 25.6% that ranked 13th in the league in 2024 and a rate of 16.3% in 2023 that ranked 2nd to last.
Suffice it to say, blitzing was not the cornerstone of the last regime, but it seems set up to be very much a foundational piece of the Aaron Glenn regime. This should make the defense look very different, even if many of the same players return.
