The New York Jets are switching things up a bit this year, with head coach Aaron Glenn, entering his second season, calling plays on the defensive side of the football.
The idea of Glenn doing so makes plenty of sense, as New York brought him in to be an above-average defensive mind. Ultimately, Glenn will have to prove that he is the guy the Jets hired, or at least hoped to, as he faces many questions entering his second season.
It's still very early, but some signs have been more promising than not. Glenn, again, clearly has a lot to figure out, but from the sound of things, he's getting a lot of respect from other coaches in the organization.
"I think by his nature he's an aggressive play caller," DC Brian Duker said, per the Jets. "He's a former corner and all that, so he knows what it's like living on the island. So that's his nature. I think you guys see that from him just day to day, and when he's a passionate guy, and that certainly I think everything that you see about him and how he carries himself probably embodies itself in how he calls plays as well."
A big reason for this will be the players the Jets added during the offseason.
For a New York team that was one of the worst defensively in football last year, failing to come away with a single interception, there's a lot of pressure on the organization to change that. Instead of sitting back, the Jets decided to land guys like Minkah Fitzpatrick and others.
Fitzpatrick, a longtime veteran, will have an opportunity to come in and make an immediate impact for this organization. From the sound of things, the Jets are hopeful Fitzpatrick will let them be more aggressive on defense.
"The thing that Mink allows us to do is he can cover a lot of different body types and he can do a lot of different jobs on defense," Duker said.
"So it allows us within our different groups to do a variety of things. We don't necessarily have to sub someone in to get a certain job done, and out of the same personnel group, we can look a lot of different ways and do a lot of different things just based on what you know his different skill set is, and that certainly makes it a little bit harder for the offense to key on things, and helps us create mismatches."
