PALM BEACH, Fla. — After two years of Aaron Rodgers-generated hype, the New York Jets are making a concerted effort to turn down the volume now that the future Hall of Famer is gone.
“It is by design,” first-year coach Aaron Glenn said Monday morning at the annual league meeting. “Listen, I’m a huge believer in just moving in silence and letting things play out the way they need to play out.”
The words sounded strange coming from a Jets official, considering the franchise’s penchant for splashy offseason moves that fueled lofty expectations, but Glenn is trying to rebuild the culture with an old-school, silence-is-golden approach.
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To that end, the Jets have made only one headline-grabbing acquisition — quarterback Justin Fields, who had no introductory news conference. Overall, they’ve made 14 acquisitions, most of whom are unheralded players who signed modest contracts. They, too, have been off-limits to the media.
“This doesn’t need to be a big hoopla of what we’re doing,” Glenn said. “We just want to go about our business and coach these players and try to create an atmosphere for the players that’s totally different than probably what they’ve been used to.”
The decision to release Rodgers, of course, changed the narrative surrounding the Jets. The polarizing quarterback attracted unprecedented media coverage over his two seasons in New York, stemming, in part, from his weekly appearances of “The Pat McAfee Show.”
The Jets fed into the attention by billing themselves as Super Bowl contenders. The results were bitterly disappointing, as they stumbled to their eighth and ninth consecutive losing seasons.
For their first significant decision, Glenn and first-time general manager Darren Mougey announced last month their intention to release Rodgers. Glenn never gave a specific reason for parting ways with the four-time MVP. On Monday, he claimed it had nothing to do with Rodgers’ larger-than-life persona.
“Regardless of how any person is, that has nothing to do with me,” Glenn said. “I know what I want to do, so that doesn’t matter to me. Doesn’t matter.”
Those who know Glenn, a Bill Parcells disciple, say he wants to create a culture based on a team-oriented approach, not one that revolves around one superstar. His philosophy shined through when asked about Fields. Asked what attracted him to Fields, the first thing Glenn said was, “Quiet confidence.”
Say hello to the quiet Jets — or so they hope.
“I want to move in silence, man, and just go about our business to go win some games,” Glenn said. “You don’t win an offseason anyway. I mean, I know everybody has these grades on free agency grades and have grades on draft grades. When you go back and look at them, they don’t really mean crap. So, the only thing that makes the difference is what you do during the season.”
Glenn said he won’t talk about the playoffs or the Super Bowl at this stage of the process. The Jets, mired in a 14-year playoff drought, won’t have to worry about huge expectations in 2025. Their over-under win total is 5.5, according to ESPN BET.
Fans might recall that former coach Robert Saleh, speaking at last year’s owners’ meetings, expressed a desire to quiet the noise. That didn’t last long. A few weeks later, Rodgers sparked a firestorm by skipping a mandatory mini-camp to vacation in Egypt.
