Aaron Glenn already avoiding the mistake that plagued Robert Saleh’s NY Jets tenure.
Aaron Glenn is already doing something Robert Saleh never did.
New NY Jets head coach Aaron Glenn has been hired to correct the mistakes made by previous regimes and overhaul a losing culture that has plagued the organization for much of the last 20+ years.
It’s not an easy task, and Glenn and his staff likely won’t be able to instill the transformations they’re hoping to overnight, but the first-time head coach has already made one important change.
Both Glenn and general manager Darren Mougey will be in attendance at the NFL’s Scouting Combine next week, a stark difference from the previous regime. Former head coach Robert Saleh was notably absent from Indianapolis most years.
2024 was the only year Saleh reversed his stance and attended the Combine — just two days at the end of the week — weeks after insisting he once again wouldn’t go. Meanwhile, the Jets sent only Douglas and a handful of coaches to the event.
Aaron Glenn and Darren Mougey will represent the NY Jets at the NFL Combine
Mougey is scheduled to speak to reporters at 12 pm ET on Tuesday while Glenn will follow him at 12:15 pm ET. It will be the first time the Jets have had both their head coach and general manager in attendance for the open-media portion of the NFL Combine in half a decade.
Not every NFL team sends its coaches to the NFL Combine, and in recent years even fewer have made that decision. Notably, Kyle Shanahan and Matt LaFleur — two head coaches Saleh is very familiar with — are among the most prominent who skip the event each year.
But given how poorly the Jets have drafted in recent years (excluding the 2022 class), maybe it would have been worth it for the team to send their full arsenal to the event.
Maybe that would’ve prevented the team from using Day 2 picks on players like Carter Warren, Max Mitchell, Zaire Barnes, Hamsah Nasirildeen, etc. Maybe the Jets would’ve thought differently before using Day 2 picks on players like Jeremy Ruckert, Malachi Corley, and Elijah Moore.
Unlike Saleh, Glenn comes from a scouting background, having spent a couple of years working as a personnel scout with the Jets before beginning his coaching career. That experience is valuable in situations like this.
Teams can still draft well without sending their head coaches to the NFL Combine — it’s hardly the barometer for draft success. But it’s probably time for the Jets to try a different approach after seeing the results of the last few years.
