FLORHAM PARK, N.J. (AP) — Aaron Glenn began his tenure as the New York Jets’ head coach with bold talk of changing a culture and fixing the failing foundation of a struggling franchise.
Nearly a year later, the Jets remain a major work in progress.
Glenn was the first coach in team history to open with seven consecutive losses. It didn't get much better as New York finished 3-14 and had one of the worst closing stretches in NFL history by getting outscored 188-46 during their season-ending five-game losing streak.
“I let the players down,” Glenn said Sunday after the Jets' 35-8 loss at Buffalo. “I let the organization down, and that burns me, it really does. This was not expected of where we are this season and I understand that. But here’s what I do know: I know the reason why I came here, and I am not going to waver from my belief and what I think wins games in this league.”
He still apparently has the backing of owner Woody Johnson, who didn't make the kneejerk reaction to cut ties with Glenn after just one awful season.
Some frustrated fans might disagree, though. They haven't seen their team go to the playoffs in 15 years, the league's longest active postseason drought. And they might not be sure Glenn, a former star player for the Jets, is the right person to lead them back to respectability. There are questions about personnel and staff decisions, in-game calls and general head coaching acumen.
His players, though, remain optimistic and receptive to Glenn's vision.
“I’m still encouraged, man,” said center Josh Myers, who finished his first season with the Jets after four in Green Bay. “I believe in AG and everything that he’s preached. I’ve been around enough good leaders to know that he's a great one. I trust that we’re going to come back and have a great season next year.”
There are plenty of decisions that need to be made by Glenn and general manager Darren Mougey for that to happen.
“If we have the same conversation — you can ask me this question next year — and I’ll be able to have a more direct answer to the fans. But for right now, it’s Year 1. There’s so much to figure out,” said defensive tackle Harrison Phillips, who has seen rebuilds in Buffalo and Minnesota.
“Give us the next eight months of an offseason. Let us go out there and try to put our best foot forward next season, and let’s see what the results show.”
The Jets have the No. 2 overall pick in the draft in April. As a result of their trade of cornerback Sauce Gardner to Indianapolis in November, they also have the No. 16 selection, along with two second-rounders, including one they received from Dallas for trading defensive tackle Quinnen Williams.
But with the failed stint of Justin Fields, who could be released in the offseason after just one season, quarterback will be the No. 1 target. That means Indiana's Fernando Mendoza and Oregon's Dante Moore, if he doesn't return to school, are very much in play for New York.
Adding a veteran in free agency or via trade also isn't out of the question, with the likes of Kyler Murray, Kirk Cousins, Malik Willis, Marcus Mariota and Jacoby Brissett among those who could be in play. Backup Tyrod Taylor is scheduled to be a free agent.
Glenn fired defensive coordinator Steve Wilks with three games left and the Jets crawled to the finish line under interim Chris Harris as they ended with five blowout losses.
“That's gonna go down as a terrible statistic over a span of time,” Phillips said. “Nobody in this organization want to have their name affiliated with that and, unfortunately, we do — and my hand is in that.”
Another issue was the Jets not getting their hands on the football. They became the first team in NFL history without an interception in a full season.
The future of running back Breece Hall will be a big focus. After running for 1,000 yards for the first time in his four NFL seasons, Hall can become a free agent.
Glenn has regularly praised Hall and the running back has been a key part of the offense. New York could place the franchise tag or transition tag on him or sign him to a new deal. Or Hall, who was the subject of trade rumors, could opt to find a new backfield elsewhere.
The Jets have around two dozen potential free agents, so there could be a major roster overhaul — fitting for a team that struggled so much.
Among those scheduled to be free agents: kicker Nick Folk, offensive linemen Alijah Vera-Tucker and John Simpson, safeties Andre Cisco and Tony Adams and linebacker Quincy Williams.
Wide receiver Garrett Wilson, one of the Jets' few stars, was limited to just seven games because of a knee injury that ended his streak of consecutive seasons of 1,000 yards receiving to begin his career at three.
He should be back during the offseason workouts and will provide a No. 1 option for whoever the quarterback is next season. In-season additions Adonai Mitchell and John Metchie III are solid complementary pieces.
The focus for Glenn, Mougey and the Jets turns to gearing up for free agency — they should have about $95 million in salary cap space — and evaluating for what could be a franchise-altering draft.
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FILE - New York Jets quarterback Justin Fields warms up before an NFL football game against the New Orleans Saints on Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Ella Hall, File)
New York Jets running back Breece Hall (20) runs for a touchdown against New England Patriots cornerback Miles Battle (35) during the second half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025, in East Rutherford, N.J. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)
New York Jets head coach Aaron Glenn looks on during the second half of an NFL football game against the New England Patriots, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025, in East Rutherford, N.J. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)
Denmark and Greenland are seeking a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio after the Trump administration doubled down on its intention to take over the strategic Arctic island, a Danish territory.
Tensions escalated after the White House said Tuesday that the “U.S. military is always an option." President Donald Trump has argued that the U.S. needs to control the world’s largest island to ensure its own security in the face of rising threats from China and Russia in the Arctic.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen warned earlier this week that a U.S. takeover would amount to the end of NATO.
“The Nordics do not lightly make statements like this,” Maria Martisiute, a defense analyst at the European Policy Centre think tank, told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “But it is Trump, whose very bombastic language bordering on direct threats and intimidation, is threatening the fact to another ally by saying ‘I will control or annex the territory.’”
The leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom joined Frederiksen in a statement Tuesday reaffirming that the mineral-rich island “belongs to its people.”
Their statement defended the sovereignty of Greenland, which is a self-governing territory of Denmark and part of NATO.
The U.S. military action in Venezuela last weekend has heightened fears across Europe, and Trump and his advisers in recent days have reiterated a desire to take over the island, which guards the Arctic and North Atlantic approaches to North America.
“It’s so strategic right now,” Trump told reporters Sunday.
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen and his Greenland counterpart, Vivian Motzfeldt, have requested a meeting with Rubio in the near future, according to a statement posted Tuesday to Greenland's government website.
Previous requests for a sit-down were not successful, the statement said.
Thomas Crosbie, an associate professor of military operations at the Royal Danish Defense College, said an American takeover would not improve upon Washington's current security strategy.
“The United States will gain no advantage if its flag is flying in Nuuk versus the Greenlandic flag,” he told the AP. “There’s no benefits to them because they already enjoy all of the advantages they want. If there’s any specific security access that they want to improve American security, they’ll be given it as a matter of course, as a trusted ally. So this has nothing to do with improving national security for the United States.”
Denmark’s parliament approved a bill last June to allow U.S. military bases on Danish soil. It widened a previous military agreement, made in 2023 with the Biden administration, where U.S. troops had broad access to Danish airbases in the Scandinavian country.
Rasmussen, in a response to lawmakers’ questions, wrote over the summer that Denmark would be able to terminate the agreement if the U.S. tries to annex all or part of Greenland.
But in the event of a military action, the U.S. Department of Defense currently operates the remote Pituffik Space Base, in northwestern Greenland, and the troops there could be mobilized.
Crosbie said he believes the U.S. would not seek to hurt the local population or engage with Danish troops.
“They don’t need to bring any firepower. They don’t to bring anybody.” Crosbie said Wednesday. “They could just direct the military personnel currently there to drive to the center of Nuuk and just say, ‘This is America now,’ right? And that would lead to the same response as if they flew in 500 or 1,000 people.”
The danger in an American annexation, he said, lies in the “erosion of the rule of law globally and to the perception that there are any norms protecting anybody on the planet.”
He added: “The impact is changing the map. The impact I don’t think would be storming the parliament.”
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said he spoke by phone Tuesday with Rubio, who dismissed the idea of a Venezuela-style operation in Greenland.
“In the United States, there is massive support for the country belonging to NATO – a membership that, from one day to the next, would be compromised by … any form of aggressiveness toward another member of NATO,” Barrot told France Inter radio on Wednesday.
Asked if he has a plan in case Trump does claim Greenland, Barrot said he would not engage in “fiction diplomacy.”
While most Republicans have supported Trump’s statement, Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Thom Tillis, the Democratic and Republican co-chairs of the bipartisan Senate NATO Observer Group, have criticized Trump’s rhetoric.
“When Denmark and Greenland make it clear that Greenland is not for sale, the United States must honor its treaty obligations and respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark,” their statement on Tuesday said. “Any suggestion that our nation would subject a fellow NATO ally to coercion or external pressure undermines the very principles of self-determination that our Alliance exists to defend.”
Geir Moulson in Berlin and Mark Carlson in Brussels contributed to this report.
FILE - Danish military forces participate in an exercise with hundreds of troops from several European NATO members in the Arctic Ocean in Nuuk, Greenland, Sept. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi, File)
FILE - A plane carrying Donald Trump Jr. lands in Nuuk, Greenland, Jan. 7, 2025. (Emil Stach/Ritzau Scanpix via AP, file)
FILE - United States Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller reacts on the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Sunday, Oct. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein), File)
CORRECT THE ORDER OF SPEAKERS, FILE - Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, right, and Greenland's Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen, left, speak on April 27, 2025, in Marienborg, Denmark. (Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix via AP, File)
