PALM BEACH — Dan Campbell and Aaron Glenn each got here to the Lions in 2021, hoping to show round a struggling group.
The mission was completed after Detroit gained back-to-back NFC North Division championships and reached the 2023 NFC Championship.
Now, Glenn hopes to do the identical with a Jets workforce that hasn’t made the postseason since 2010. In the course of the NFL Annual League Assembly this week, Campbell expressed his confidence that Glenn will have the ability to do the identical in New York.
“You gotta be able to do what you need to do to build it from the ground up,” Campbell stated. “AG has been around some phenomenal coaches, Bill Parcells, Sean Payton, this guy gets it. He has been around the best at building and sustaining.
“You need a leader and a guy that can hold people accountable, and I’m talking about top down, has a vision for where you want to go, and allows them to do that, and he has every bit of that. As long as he has the support, AG will turn that thing around, it’s no question.
“He’s an unbelievable leader and an even better person and he’s the type of person that makes people want to rally around him. If he can’t do it, nobody can, and that’s my opinion.”
Campbell and Glenn’s working relationship started once they got here to the Saints in 2016 underneath Payton. Campbell was named assistant head coach and tight ends coach, and Glenn was the workforce’s defensive backs coach.
Considered one of Campbell’s first strikes after being named Lions’ coach in 2021 was naming Glenn his defensive coordinator. Glenn’s protection steadily improved after ending 3-13-1 throughout their first season in Detroit. That unit improvement was a catalyst behind the Lions’ enhance in wins from three to 9 to 12 to fifteen final 12 months, which was tied for probably the most within the league.
In 2023, the Lions’ protection completed nineteenth within the league in yards (336.1), a season after ending final in that class. A 12 months later, the Lions had been twentieth in yards allowed (342.4), however they had been seventh in factors allowed (20.1). Detroit additionally allowed the second-lowest completion share (61.1%) and the league’s lowest passer ranking (82.0) final season.
This was regardless of the Lions having 13 gamers on injured reserve late within the season, together with star cross rusher Aidan Hutchinson and cornerback Carlton Davis III. Glenn has been labeled a culture-builder — a coach who can get gamers to purchase into and affect the group. After having the longest playoff drought in North American sports activities (14 seasons), that appealed to the Jets through the hiring course of.
“Go pull up anything AG’s done here and just watch it,” Campbell stated. “It’s all over the internet. He’s an unbelievable teacher, he’s a motivator, he’s all about the details and he’s about accountability.
“If he has something on his mind, he’s no different than I am, he’s going to say it. He’s not just going to sweep it under the rug, he’s going to let you know, and I think that’s important. Sometimes that gets lost.
“Everybody just assumes if you’re holding people accountable, that means you’re being an as–le. That’s not what that means.”
Glenn took a few Lions offensive assistant coaches with him, hoping to have comparable outcomes to a Jets workforce that had bother even discovering the top zone at occasions a season in the past. Lions passing sport coordinator Tanner Engstrand is now the Jets’ offensive coordinator, and Steve Heiden, who coached Detroit’s tight ends the previous two years, strikes over as offensive line coach.
“Critical pieces to what we were able to do offensively,” Campbell stated about Engstrand and Heiden. “Tanner was our tight ends and pass game coordinator the last couple of years. Steve Heiden was our tight ends coach and both of them ready to make that move.
“They always had critical input on the run game and the pass game. Tanner has some experience. He has called plays before, it hasn’t been in the NFL, but he has done this and organized game plans. They are going to be great out there.”
Engstrand has by no means known as performs within the NFL however has offensive line expertise. He was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach on the College of San Diego (2011-17) and was additionally the offensive coordinator for the UFL’s DC Defenders in 2020.
After signing quarterback Justin Fields to a two-year, $40 million contract, the Jets will doubtless lean extra into their floor sport underneath Engstrand, which is an space he has performed up to now. Final 12 months, the Jets completed twenty fourth in offense (310.3) and twenty fifth in factors per sport (19.9).
“If you look at his career, he has been under [Jim] Harbaugh, a run-installed offense,” Glenn stated. In the event you return and actually research what we’ve performed, Ben [Johnson] did an excellent job of placing all the things collectively. Tanner did an excellent job of working the passing sport to ensure that coincides what we did on the working sport.
“That’s what Steve Heiden did a really good job of also. So, I have all the confidence in the world that he can take all that information he’s learned to be able to create an offense for the guys that we have.”
Initially Revealed: April 3, 2025 at 10:29 AM EDT
