Like Dan Campbell, Aaron Glenn has never been anyone but himself. That authenticity helped Campbell land the head coaching job with the Lions. Glenn took the same approach to the latest round of interviews he wrapped up last week.
"You learn a number of things each year that you go through them, and you try to improve on those each year," the Lions defensive coordinator said Wednesday. "But I think the one thing that I get out of all of these interviews is, man, I’m gonna be myself. And either you like it or you don’t. If you don’t, all good; I keep telling you guys, I have a great job here. And if you like it, and it’s an opportunity that I think is best for me and my family, then we’ll take a look at it."
Glenn interviewed virtually with the Jets, Saints, Bears and Jaguars last week, and said he "had a really good time over the bye looking at those." He feels like a natural fit in New Orleans, having spent five years there as a defensive backs coach prior to coming with Campbell to Detroit. He also has deep ties to the Jets.
While Glenn was a three-time Pro Bowl corner in his playing days and has always coached the defensive side of the ball, he clarified Wednesday: "I'm a coach. I just happen to be on defense. I understand offense just as well as a number of people, so if you’re going to hire me, you’re going to hire a coach — not just a defensive coach. I’m going to talk to the offense just as much as I talk to the defense."
Glenn has had head coaching interviews each of the last five offseasons, starting in 2021 with the Jets. He's more prepared than ever for the job, as Campbell made clear last week: "The thought of going through another cycle and he’s not somebody’s head coach is ridiculous." If this is indeed the year that Glenn lands a gig, he has a few people in mind to build out his staff.
"Those are things I think you always look at during the offseason, the guys that you think mesh well with you and are compatible with how you think and how you want to operate," he said. "During the season, you really don’t even mess with it at all, because you’re so locked-in on what you’re doing. Once the interviews start, you start to come back to some of those people that you’ve talked to and start to think about, ‘Is this a guy can that I feel like I can win a Super Bowl with?’ I always look at it that way."
Glenn, 52, has been part of a remarkable turnaround with the Lions. They've gone from one of the worst teams in the NFL in year one under Campbell to one of the best in year four. Since their 4-19-1 start, they're 35-9, tied with the Chiefs for the best record in the league.
Glenn's defense has followed a similar trajectory over his four years with the Lions, from 31st in points allowed to seventh -- despite losing several key players this year to injures.
Reflecting on those first two seasons in Detroit, Glenn said "the thing that sticks out to me is our head coach and our coordinators and our coaches never wavered from the things that we believed in. And I think that’s a strong statement when you stand in front of a group of men and say, ‘This is how you have to win, and we believe that you win this way.’ And those guys believed it, too."
Glenn also referenced that Lions owner Sheila Ford Hamp met with the media when the team was 1-5 in year two under Campbell and Brad Holmes "and she backed everybody, all the coaches, that we have a formula to win and it’s this close. From then on, I think we went 8-2, into now."
"So, here’s what it taught me: we know as a staff how to build a winner and now we know how to sustain a winner," said Glenn. "We want to continue to do that as long as we’re all here."
Or wherever he goes next.