Aaron Glenn has been through a season like this before.
Glenn is off to an 0-4 start in his first season as Jets coach.
In 2021, when he was in his first year as the Lions defensive coordinator under Dan Campbell, they got off to an 0-8 start.
“Well, I would say this: It’s not fun being 0-8,” Glenn said this week. “Man, you get ridiculed, you get talked about. I mean, people are after you in the worst way, when as a coach, man you just have to believe and understand how you want to build and the foundation that you’re trying to set, that you cannot waver from those things even when the outside noise is really on you. [Campbell] did an outstanding job of that, and the same with the whole staff, because we all felt it.”
Glenn and the Jets are now trying to avoid the fourth 0-5 start in franchise history with a game Sunday against the Cowboys (1-2-1), who are having their own issues.
The Jets don’t just have a bad record.
They have looked bad in three of the four games.
Last week in Miami, they had 13 penalties and three turnovers on the way to a 27-21 loss.
Glenn sees similarities between those 2021 Lions and these Jets.
The Lions turned things around the following season, going 9-8, then went to the NFC Championship game in 2023.
“We just knew at some point it was going to break through, and once it broke through, man, we were just rolling,” Glenn said. “Listen, I feel the same way about here, and I understand how the fans feel, I do. I’m hurting just like they are. … But I do know this: I believe in everything that we’re doing, and I know that there’s going to be a breakthrough, and when it breaks through, this thing is going to pop exactly like we all want it to.”
Glenn would be the first coach in franchise history to begin his time with the team with five straight losses.
Coincidentally, Adam Gase started off 0-4 in 2019 and got his first win in Week 5 against the Cowboys.
Maybe history repeats itself.
The Jets pointed to the positives this week as signs they can turn this around.
“We’ve lost three games by one score,” quarterback Justin Fields said. “So, I think that’s a positive to look at and I think if we clean up turnovers, penalties, that’s definitely going to put us in a better position to secure those wins instead of saying we’re close and this and that. But just focusing on us, not necessarily our opponents, but fixing everything that we can to put ourselves in the best position to win.”
