Jets Glenn press conference e1738084582128 New York JetsAdam Hunger/Associated Press

Most would agree that Nick Sirianni lost his press conference four years ago this week. Now, he has more wins (53) over his first four seasons than any head coach in three decades. Aaron Glenn, most would agree, won his press conference on Monday.

“To any players that’s here now,” Glenn said, “put your seatbelts on and get ready for the ride. Put your seatbelts on and get ready for the ride. Listen, there are going to be some challenges. But with challenges come opportunities, begets opportunity. But here’s what I do know: We’re the freaking New York Jets, and we’re built for this (expletive).”

Lifelong New Yorker and Jets fan Craig Carton said the Jets being built for that is actually the problem.

“Do I like Aaron Glenn? Yeah. He was a Pro Bowl player for many years,” Carton said on Tuesday’s Breakfast Ball. “Do I respect Aaron Glenn? Sure, why not? Did he do a good job with the press conference? Yes, he did. Comes across as a very self-confident guy, a guy that will be respected in the locker room, A, because he played, and B, he’s now earned this opportunity, as a coordinator with the Lions, as a scout before.”

Carton likely speaks for most Jets fans, a group protecting its collective heart. While Sirianni and the Eagles ran off the field in Sunday’s NFC Championship Game and toward Super Bowl LIX, the only Super Bowl memory the Jets have is Joe Namath running off the field at the Orange Bowl 56 years ago. The only championship game memory younger Jets fans have is Ben Roethlisberger completing a backbreaking first-down pass to Antonio Brown 14 years ago.

For most other franchises, Glenn would’ve been a home-run hire. But for the Jets’ fanbase, optimistic is the best it can muster. While Carton said he appreciates the hard work Glenn has invested in a post-playing career that started as a Jets scout for Bill Parcels, Carton isn’t confident. He’s mostly uncertain.

“To answer your question, I don’t know,” Carton said. “Because the last thing he said is the most accurate thing he said, and not in a positive manner. We are the freaking Jets. We’re built for this bleep. He said the S-word. I’m saying, ‘Nonsense.’ We are built for incompetence. We are built for the clown show. We are built for, ‘Can we beat the New York Giants on the Back Page?’ Because, you guys wouldn’t get this, just not as New Yorkers. The only battle that the Jets used to really care about was, ‘We want more attention than the New York Giants get because we’ve never gotten it, because the Giants had a 100-year head start as a franchise on us. We’re the little brothers in this town.

“Then we got Rex Ryan. Wow. We own New York. We got a little taste of what that’s like, and boom, right off down the cliff. We had incompetence for a decade after that. We get Robert Saleh. All gas, no brakes. And we thought we finally got our guy. We know that turned out. Never a winning record. And now we’ve got a guy that we cheered for, who wore Jet green, who we’re desperate to see succeed as the Jets’ head coach. But I don’t know. I just don’t know.”

For more information on the Jets or the NFL hiring cycle, visit the N.Y. Jets team page and the Coach/GM Carousel page at ProFootballPost.com.


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By Zak Gilbert

Since his freshman year at the University of Colorado, Zak Gilbert has worked 30 years in sports, including 18 NFL seasons. He's spent time with four NFL teams, serving as head of communications for both the Raiders and Browns. A veteran of nine Super Bowls, he most recently worked six seasons in the NFL's New York league office.

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