Aaron Glenn has been officially introduced as the next Jets head coach, and now, the work really begins.
The former Lions defensive coordinator will be tasked with hiring his staff, preparing for the draft, and of course, deciding on the fate of his current QB1 in Aaron Rodgers.
Glenn didn’t dodge the question at all, coming out unprovoked and telling reporters that Rodgers’ future with the franchise will be discussed soon, and he had already communicated that to the future Hall of Famer. Regardless of the decision, Gio warns that Glenn, a first-time head coach, could be walking into a situation where he is stuck in “quarterback hell” and unable to get out.
“A lot of these coaches, when they’re stuck in quarterback hell, they’re never gonna get out of it,” Gio said. “And that’s where the Jets are right now. Even if Aaron Rodgers comes back for one more year and people think he’s gonna be who he was at the end of the season, he was hurt early in the season, he was hurt last year, and chances are he’s gonna get hurt again. But you’re supposed to be winning games with him, so you’re probably not gonna be picking at the top of the draft, and you’ll have to get scrapheap guys.
“The Jets of the previous regime had that opportunity to draft someone at the top of the draft and completely whiffed. That was their downfall more than anything else.”
Glenn and the Jets will also have to weigh the salary cap implications when deciding whether to keep or cut Rodgers, though Gio looks over to Denver and sees a formula where it can work and turn into immediate success the following season. But that was done with an experienced, Super Bowl winning coach in Sean Payton, while this will be Glenn’s first year on the job.
It’s harder to see him escaping from “quarterback hell” so quickly and masterfully, though that doesn’t mean it’s impossible.
“Can the Jets, with Aaron Glenn as a first-time head coach who doesn’t even know who his coordinators are yet, take a rookie quarterback and then do what Sean Payton did with Bo Nix? The answer to that for me is no 10 times out of 10,” Gio said. “But it doesn’t mean the Jets won’t be in position to get somebody, and it might end up working out for them.”