You don’t have to love everything that’s going on with the New York Jets right now, but if you’re a Jets fan who isn’t excited about the arrival of Aaron Glenn, you may want to check your pulse.
The Jets had their first padded practice under Glenn at 1 Jets Drive today and judging by the comments of those in attendance, it is indeed a very new era. After closing out last week’s final practice with light contact open field tackling drill, Aaron Glenn wasted no time having his players go full tilt as soon as the pads came on.
One tweet after another from the Jets beat talked about how it was the most physical practice they’d seen in years. The Jets were finally practicing “real football” in training camp, all with Aaron Glenn in the middle of it.
Years of taking it easy and a head coach trying to build friendships with his players are over. The Jets now have a head coach who understands that if you want to win football games, you have to practice playing real football.
As Glenn said after practice, “injuries are a part of this game and there’s no way to hide from it. Usually when you do try to hide from it that’s when they pop up. But the principles of this game will never change”.
Of equal importance was what Glenn did following a flag on tight end Jeremy Ruckert. Unlike the previous regime, it seems the “attaboys” that were handed out following penalties are gone and Ruckert was pulled out of practice. I believe the word is “accountability”.
This Jets team has a seemingly endless list of questions. Whether it’s at defensive tackle, who will fill out the wide receiver depth chart and how to get Justin Fields rolling. Those are all issues to be tended to. But it certainly appears that for the first time in a long while, the guy doing the tending is treating his football players like football players. Nice change of pace.
