Aaron Glenn confirmed previous suspicions that he will be calling plays on defense this season. The Jets’ second-year coach indicated (via ESPN.com’s Rich Cimini) that will be case, with new DC hire Brian Duker being in place as a game-planning lieutenant. This offseason change probably helped influence today’s Jermaine Johnson–T’Vondre Sweat trade.
Johnson is reuniting with Robert Saleh in Tennessee. He follows Sauce Gardner and Quinnen Williams as Joe Douglas-era defensive pillars shipped out via trade since deadline day. Unlike Gardner and Williams, Johnson remains on his rookie contract.
One season, a fifth-year option the Jets exercised in 2025, remains on Johnson’s deal. While Johnson stands to be a better scheme fit with the Titans, ESPN.com’s Jeremy Fowler notes he had quietly sought a New York exit. This came after a report a 2026 Jets extension was unlikely.
A Nashville reunion with Saleh was one of Johnson’s preferred destinations, per Fowler. The Titans will be running Saleh’s scheme, which has included a 4-3 alignment in San Francisco and New York, while the Jets will be transitioning to a 3-4 look as Glenn takes the reins on defense, SNY’s Connor Hughes notes. Sweat will certainly be a better fit as a 3-4 nose in New York; he served in that capacity for the past two seasons in Tennessee.
As Johnson joined Williams in seeking a Jets exit, Sweat was falling out of favor in Tennessee. Sweat could not consistently keep his weight where the Titans wanted it, per veteran reporter Paul Kuharsky. He will now be part of an overhauled Jets front seven, one that still features Will McDonald as an EDGE pillar. But the Jets have moved on from Williams, Johnson, John Franklin-Myers, Haason Reddick and Bryce Huff since the 2024 offseason. With Micheal Clemons a free agent, McDonald is about all that is left from Joe Douglas‘ regime on that unit.
With Johnson out of the picture, the Jets will be closely connected to using the No. 2 overall pick — presuming the Raiders follow through on their long-rumored Fernando Mendoza selection — on an edge defender. Ohio State’s Vell Reese and Texas Tech’s David Bailey certainly did not do anything to lower their draft stocks at the Combine today. One could be added to complement McDonald come April. The Jets viewed McDonald as the higher-value player compared to Johnson last year, with the latter struggling in his first season following an Achilles tear.
The Jets may not be done trading assets acquired under Douglas, with Hughes adding talk at the Combine points to internal interest in unloading more players from the previous regime. This does not include Breece Hall, whom Gang Green plans to tag before next week’s deadline. But the dwindling number of Douglas-Saleh-era pieces may thin out further soon, as the deadline showed no one added prior to the Glenn-Darren Mougey duo’s arrival is particularly safe here.
Garrett Wilson isn’t going anywhere, and Cimini adds center/guard Joe Tippmann may be an extension candidate. Sliding to right guard (in place of the injured Alijah Vera-Tucker) after the Josh Myers signing, Tippmann has full-season starter experience at center and RG. The Jets’ two-year left guard starter, John Simpson, is a free agent. Being acquired under Douglas would make him less likely to return, but Tippmann looks to be a player this regime wants to keep working with beyond 2026.
The Jets are riding a 15-year playoff drought, by far the NFL’s longest skid, and 2025 trade acquisition Harrison Phillips said recently Glenn inherited a “cancerous, truculent” group. Phillips remains under contract, making this an interesting stance to take ahead of an April return to work. But the Jets were worse last season than in the final three Saleh years, continuing an extended period of futility.
“I think AG inherited a very cancerous, truculent group — whole, top to bottom,” Phillips said during an interview with Roundtable Sports (via Cimini). “It’s not individual people’s fault. I was there for one season — it was a very difficult season — and I almost wanted to waver on some of my thoughts and my beliefs and my optimism. So, I can’t imagine being there for year after year after year after year and not seeing the results that you wanted, and it tainted people.”
Amid that struggle, Glenn canned DC hire Steve Wilks — last season’s play-caller — and was tied to being close to hiring Don Martindale as his next DC. Rumblings about Woody Johnson changing that plan (and having Glenn call plays) surfaced. Glenn naturally defended his boss, noting (via Cimini) the owner — known as a meddlesome figure — is “not pushing me to pick coaches.”
Glenn’s seat is certainly much hotter after a 3-14 debut; he and Duker — a Lions assistant under Glenn from 2021-23 before a Miami relocation — will be tasked with turning around a unit that regressed considerably after Saleh and Jeff Ulbrich‘s exits.
Another former Glenn charge appears to be on the Jets’ radar. Alex Anzalone, who overlapped with Glenn in Detroit and New Orleans, is in play for the Jets, per Essentiallysports.com’s Tony Pauline, who notes mutual interest in a signing is present. A third-round Saints pick in their tide-turning 2017 class, Anzalone followed Glenn to Detroit in 2021. He started five seasons with the Lions, but the NFC North team — which has a slew of extension candidates based on its recent drafts — did not agree on an extension for the veteran linebacker last year.
The Lions were believed to have interest in re-signing Anzalone, but Pauline adds a market is developing for the 93-start player. Anzalone, 31, played out a three-year, $18.75MM deal. During his Detroit tenure, the Lions used a first-round pick on Jack Campbell and re-signed LB Derrick Barnes. These developments look to point the nine-year veteran elsewhere, and there could be a fit in New York — where Saleh-era piece Quincy Williams is nearing free agency.
The Jets also have safeties Andre Cisco and Tony Adams set to hit the market, and Pauline indicates the team is expected to pursue veteran help on the market next month. Jets meetings with agents representing safety UFAs-to-be are expected to take place this week, as the team’s Week 1 defense is poised to be vastly different from what it looked like to open last season.
Jets got a good player for one not wanting to be there anymore at least