PALM BEACH — Dan Campbell and Aaron Glenn both came to the Lions in 2021, hoping to turn around a struggling organization.
The mission was accomplished after Detroit won back-to-back NFC North Division championships and reached the 2023 NFC Championship.
Now, Glenn hopes to do the same with a Jets team that hasn’t made the postseason since 2010. During the NFL Annual League Meeting this week, Campbell expressed his confidence that Glenn will be able to do the same in New York.
“You gotta be able to do what you need to do to build it from the ground up,” Campbell said. “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 began when they came to the Saints in 2016 under Payton. Campbell was named assistant head coach and tight ends coach, and Glenn was the team’s defensive backs coach.
One of Campbell’s first moves after being named Lions’ coach in 2021 was naming Glenn his defensive coordinator. Glenn’s defense steadily improved after finishing 3-13-1 during their first season in Detroit. That unit development was a catalyst behind the Lions’ increase in wins from three to nine to 12 to 15 last year, which was tied for the most in the league.
In 2023, the Lions’ defense finished 19th in the league in yards (336.1), a season after finishing last in that category. A year later, the Lions were 20th in yards allowed (342.4), but they were seventh in points allowed (20.1). Detroit also allowed the second-lowest completion percentage (61.1%) and the league’s lowest passer rating (82.0) last season.
This was despite the Lions having 13 players on injured reserve late in the season, including star pass rusher Aidan Hutchinson and cornerback Carlton Davis III. Glenn has been labeled a culture-builder — a coach who can get players to buy into and influence the organization. After having the longest playoff drought in North American sports (14 seasons), that appealed to the Jets during the hiring process.
“Go pull up anything AG’s done here and just watch it,” Campbell said. “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 couple of Lions offensive assistant coaches with him, hoping to have similar results to a Jets team that had trouble even finding the end zone at times a season ago. Lions passing game coordinator Tanner Engstrand is now the Jets’ offensive coordinator, and Steve Heiden, who coached Detroit’s tight ends the past two years, moves over as offensive ...
