New Jets coach Aaron Glenn will stand in front of his team on Monday as the Jets begin their offseason program.
The NFL permits teams with new coaches to start two weeks before the other teams and the Jets program begins Monday in Florham Park.
It is voluntary but it should be well attended as players begin getting to know Glenn and the new coaching staff.
The Jets will then have a voluntary minicamp in two weeks.
For Glenn, this early part of spring is about starting to change the culture inside the Jets.
“To me, it’s a process and I’ve talked to our staff about this,” Glenn said. “I’m not here to talk about the playoffs. I’m not here to talk about the Super Bowl when the players first get in. To me, it’s the process of actually making it that point. The two things I want to make sure we do first and foremost is establish the culture that we’ve been talking about and try to create a building environment.”
Glenn was hired by the Jets because they were impressed by his leadership qualities.
Unlike some other coaches who were hired because they might have a great offensive scheme or know a ton about Xs and Os, it feels like the Jets want Glenn to be a leader, first and foremost.
The Jets have a 14-year playoff drought, the longest in North American sports.
They have had nine straight losing seasons and five straight double-digit loss seasons.
Jets owner Woody Johnson is convinced that Glenn, a former first-round pick of the team, is the man to turn things around.
Jets fans will hear plenty about culture in the coming months.
“Culture’s about people,” Glenn said last week. “As we continue to get the right people in the building, the culture’s going to change. That’s something I learned a long time ago. Me sitting up there giving a rah-rah speech that has nothing to do with culture. Culture is about the people that we bring in the building. I’m not just talking about players. I’m talking about coaches, too. I’m talking about support staff, too. We’re trying to do a really good job of bringing the right people in the building and as we do that the culture will eventually change.”
In addition to the culture change, Glenn wants his players to focus on improving their strength and speed in phase one of the offseason program when there are no on-field workouts.
Everything is restricted to meetings and strength and conditioning. On-field football activities begin in two weeks.
“Understand what phase one is really about,” Glenn said. “We’re trying to get bigger, faster, stronger, more explosive. That’s the only thing I want the players worrying about at that point. We have a lot of time for scheme. We have a lot of time to talk about Super Bowls and playoffs, but right now building a culture and building an environment in that building is the most important thing right now to me.”
The Jets will look younger than they did in 2024 when they gather.
The team put an emphasis on signing younger players in free agency. Josh Reynolds was their only signee who was at least 30 years old. Most are between 24-27 years old.
“It’s a young man’s game,” Glenn said. “I was always taught that you can’t be afraid of the young player. I think what you’re able to, you’re able to mold these guys into who you want them to be and what type of team you want to be. I think me and [GM Darren Mougey] did a really good job trying to create that.”
