beyond the back page What Aaron Glenn can prove against the team that propelled him into the Jets job By Andrew Crane Published Sep. 25, 2026, 7:48 a.m. ET Aaron Glenn delivers instructions to the Jets during their Week 2 loss to the Packers on Sept. 20, 2026. AP Photo/Adam Hunger Throughout his first season with the Jets, Aaron Glenn kept making the comparison. Kept referencing the Lions team in 2021 — the one that Dan Campbell took over as head coach with Glenn as his defensive coordinator — as an example for why the Jets, despite what their woeful record suggested last year, could turn it around eventually.
That year, Detroit went 3-13. They started 0-10-1. But by the time 2022 ended, they were 9-8, pushing for a playoff spot at the end and finishing the final stages of a foundation that has led to them — mostly — being an annual NFC contender since.
So this is fitting. It’s ironic that Glenn and the Jets, after two weeks of mostly optimism-filled football until a game-management meltdown last week, will head to Detroit on Sunday and face the 1-1 Lions with a chance for both redemption after the coach’s Week 2 criticism and a measuring stick on his Jets tenure to date.
In Week 1, Gang Green looked like they could be a respectable football team this year. In Week 2, they were a late collapse away from securing a 2-0 start to the season. And Sunday, Glenn will get a chance to show that these aren’t the Same Old Jets anymore — that he’s right and it can be different — against the franchise he helped construct that blueprint for.
