Where Should Jets Fans Confidence Level Be With Aaron Glenn in 2026?

As we head into the new year, many teams are preparing for their playoff push, while others are getting ready to reload their roster to see if they can get over the hump in 2026. Not Jets fans, though. They’re all busy arguing whether their first-year head coach should even get another shot with the team next season. The team is set to finish with three wins in one of the worst seasons ever for the team. If the product on the field was the only factor, Glenn would likely have been gone already, but like most things in the NFL, it’s more complicated than that.

Glenn, to be fair, has not had the easiest road to success. This regime inherited a toxic mess from the last staff, both in talent and in culture. Their offense hasn’t had functional quarterback play for the majority of the year, and the receiving core was pretty much Garrett Wilson vs the world. On the defense, there has been massive regression by many players, most notably the linebacker play, and their defensive coordinator, Steve Wilks, was fired before the end of the season. Because of all this dysfunction, many people have argued that Glenn and Co. need time to fill out the roster with their own guys and build the culture over time.

The other side of this argument is to point out all the glaring mistakes that this regime has made in their short amount of time here. Glenn’s been very antagonistic with the media, which definitely does not mix well with the losing. Not just this, but he has had multiple blatantly poor decisions, whether it be in game like the disasterous halftime sequence against Denver, or roster-wise like not cutting Xavier Gipson before he costed them the game against Pittsburgh. The major issue at this point, however, is the effort that the team is putting into the last few games. Their -107 point differential in December was the worst December in NFL history, and the team has just looked completely checked out since the Dolphins game. It’s not just a talent issue; it’s becoming a buy-in issue, and if the coach loses the locker room, there’s not much more he can do.

So what will happen? Well, it’s impossible to say for certain, but the most likely option is that Aaron Glenn and Darren Mougey are here for at least one more year. This is likely for two reasons, and neither are because of results. The first reason is that because of the Sauce Gardner and Quinnen Williams trades, the team has five first-round picks in the next two years. They have bought themselves time to fill out the roster with those trades, since Woody Johnson will likely want to see what they can do with all these picks, and if they can actually fill out the roster with their guys. The other reason is the money. Glenn’s being paid an unconfirmed amount of money, but we know that it’s a lot. With Woody still footing the bill for Robert Saleh, he’s not going to want to pay Glenn his severance check and then also pay another new coach. It just isn’t a realistic expectation for someone like Woody to do. Jets fans, while they should still be hopeful that the team can see a Dan Campbell-esque turnaround in year two, should not expect a huge difference next year based on what we have seen so far. Either way, the staff needs to follow through on some serious New Year's resolutions.