No slogans or hype speeches as Aaron Glenn's Jets open camp and chase improvement

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. (AP) — Aaron Glenn met with his New York Jets players ahead of their first practice of the summer and shared a simple goal.

And he did it without using gimmicky catch phrases or emotion-driven words. Glenn is all about business in Year 2 of leading the Jets, who are looking to put a 3-14 season far behind them and hoping to end a 15-year postseason drought.

“We just want to build off the momentum that we actually had in OTAs going into training camp,” Glenn said Wednesday. "So no slogans, no hype speeches. Wanted to set the tone with the players yesterday. And man, we’re ready to improve. And that’s what we’re trying to do."

Glenn's job depends on it.

The former Pro Bowl cornerback returned last year to the team that drafted him in the first round in 1994, looking to lead the Jets back to respectability in his first opportunity as an NFL head coach. Instead, Glenn oversaw one of the worst seasons in team history. Mistakes in decision making, clock management and personnel were among the culprits. So were some of his choices on his coaching staff.

“I think for any head coach, going from Year 1 to Year 2, you see things, I don’t want to say totally different, but man, there are some blind spots that you probably didn’t expect,” Glenn said. “And that’s what every coach and every first-time head coach has told me, that it allows you to go into this year, man, being able to attack those things the right way.”

When it comes to those “blind spots,” Glenn is keeping those to himself, saying it's not fair to him or his team to broadcast any of that. He's doing the same when it comes to his overall message to his players, who have made it clear they're all in on their head coach.

“AG has done a great job of laying out the blueprint for this team and where he wants to take us,” quarterback Geno Smith said. “And it’s our job to bring that into manifestation.”

Added linebacker Demario Davis: “You have 90 men in that locker room who will run through a wall for him.”

Glenn sits firmly on the coaching hot seat as he prepares for the season, knowing improvement — by him and his team — is expected. Or it could be someone else's turn to try to turn this around for the long-suffering franchise.

“Honestly, I think everybody that comes to New York, even though he’s played here before, it’s like you bit off a little more than what you could chew at first, you know what I mean?” running back Breece Hall said. “Like, you don’t realize it. And I think, like, him being in the first year, he dealt with the highs of the highs and the lows of the lows. And I just think, like, you know, he knows what to expect.

“He knows what he wants. He knows what he wants to see out of the organization, out of the players, out the coaches.”

Glenn overhauled his staff during the offseason, changing half of his assistants, including replacing offensive coordinator Tanner Engstrand with Frank Reich and defensive coordinator Steve Wilks, who was fired late last season, with Brian Duker, although Glenn will now call the plays on defense — something he calls his “super power.”

General manager Darren Mougey has already seen a difference with Glenn adding the play-calling duties.

“It’s been fun to watch,” he said. “To see him engaged with the players in the meetings, on the field, I think you see it today — you see that energy and enthusiasm with the defensive play calling, him having his hands on it and be kind of in the nitty-gritty of it all.”

Glenn said Reich, a former Jets teammate, has a philosophy on offense that aligns with his: running the ball and looking for explosive plays. Duker, who was an assistant in Detroit with Glenn, is well-versed in the defense and can step in whenever the head coach needs to tackle another area of running the team throughout the season.

“That’s a real comfort for me,” Glenn said. “It’s really exciting for me to be able to install a defense that I know like the back of my hand. A lot of what we’re doing is things that I actually want to do as far as coming from New Orleans into Detroit. So if there’s an issue, I can quickly fix it. And that feels exciting to me.

"So knowing Frank, knowing what he brings to the table, knowing what Duke brings to table, and me being able to call the defense and fix issues that we have, man, I look forward to that. I really do.”

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New York Jets' Breece Hall smiles while stretching during an NFL football training camp in Florham Park, N.J., Wednesday, July 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

New York Jets' Breece Hall (20), center right, greets quarterback Geno Smith (7) during an NFL football training camp in Florham Park, N.J., Wednesday, July 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

New York Jets quarterback Geno Smith (7) warms-up during an NFL football training camp in Florham Park, N.J., Wednesday, July 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

New York Jets head coach Aaron Glenn speaks to reporters after an NFL football practice in Florham Park, N.J., Wednesday, July 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

New York Jets head coach Aaron Glenn greets players during an NFL football training camp in Florham Park, N.J., Wednesday, July 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

LEGE-CAP FERRET, France (AP) — An uncontained wildfire four times the size of Paris threatened to surge again in southwest France on Wednesday — as three firefighters died in Greece and crews across southern Europe confronted a punishing mix of heat, drought and strong winds.

The deaths on Crete brought a fatal new dimension to a wildfire emergency stretching from the Atlantic coast to the eastern Mediterranean. At the peak of the evacuations, a third of a million people were driven from homes and vacation sites in France and Spain.

In France’s Gironde region, the country’s biggest blaze had not spread during a calm night, authorities said. But as temperatures approached 40 C (104 F) Wednesday afternoon and winds strengthened, the reprieve threatened to be short-lived.

The landscape was so combustible that investigators believe routine brush-clearing work near a high-voltage line may have sparked the inferno, even though the work appeared to comply with regulations.

At the command center in Lège, firefighters bent over maps spread across a car hood, tracking three danger zones: northern Cap-Ferret; the wooded corridor around Marcheprime, Cestas and Saint-Jean-d’Illac; and a military site near Martignas, where a major outbreak forced a large deployment.

More than 2,200 firefighters and over 20 aircraft remained mobilized, backed by crews from across France and European partners.

“We strike quickly and strike hard at any new smoke emissions,” Gironde fire commander Matthieu Jomain said.

Beyond the command center, civilians were trying to hold the line themselves. At Souge, volunteers flooded the edges of dirt tracks while a local digger driver plowed through still-burning soil, trying to keep flames from crossing back when the expected west wind arrived. In Lacanau, residents pumped water from a lake into tanks headed for hot spots and firefighters’ cisterns.

“If one day the fire starts in our neck of the woods, I know very well that all the people here would do the same for us,” said Flavien Dubuch, 33, who drove from Saint-Émilion with his father to help.

The advance of major fires in the Landes and Var regions has been halted. That left Gironde as France’s biggest remaining wildfire battle, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said.

The Gironde fire forced 220,000 people to flee at the peak of the crisis. Tens of thousands have since been allowed home, but authorities warned that the danger had not passed.

Extreme heat strips moisture from vegetation and drives down humidity, turning grasses, brush and forest litter into faster-burning fuel.

Investigators believe contractors working near a high-voltage line for power-grid operator Enedis ignited the blaze while using a brush-cutting machine, Bordeaux prosecutor Renaud Gaudeul said.

Météo-France said Wednesday would be the hottest and driest day of the week, with elevated wildfire danger across every region of France. Drought now covers mainland France and Corsica, with soils nearing the record dryness reached in August 2022.

Smoke from the Gironde and Landes fires also pushed particulate pollution higher across both departments, regional air-quality monitors said.

Gironde authorities ordered 4,000 more people out of tourist sites along the Atlantic coast on Tuesday, widening what may be France’s largest peacetime evacuation.

“The situation remains complicated. That’s clear. We’re not out of the woods,” said Gironde prefect Sophie Brocas, who also authorized 60,000 evacuees to return to three Bordeaux suburbs untouched by fire.

The opposing movements — thousands ordered out of coastal resorts as others returned with mobile phones on and emergency bags packed — captured how precarious the situation remains.

The disruption was spreading beyond the burn zone into Bordeaux’s peak tourism season.

Edouard le Grix de la Salle, who runs Château du Grand Verdus with his brother, said official appeals to avoid the region threatened its wine-tourism trade. “How did they not think about protecting that sector?” he told The Associated Press.

At one point the Gironde blaze created a black thundercloud, electrified and lit from within, that generated lightning, violent winds and new fires beyond the original front. The pyrocumulonimbus was the first recorded in France.

Two firefighters died Wednesday while battling a wildfire in the Rethymno region of Crete, Greece’s fire department said. They were among about 125 firefighters confronting flames fanned by strong winds, with four helicopters and four water-dropping planes deployed.

The circumstances of their deaths were not immediately clear. The department said they died “in the line of duty to protect the lives and property of citizens and the natural environment.”

A third firefighter also died Wednesday outside the fire perimeter, after tackling a separate blaze in Greece’s southern Peloponnese region.

At the height of the crisis, roughly 330,000 people were driven from homes and vacation sites across France and Spain.

Tens of thousands of people began returning home in central Spain after firefighters made progress around Madrid and Ávila. Evacuation orders were lifted for about 20,000 people in the Madrid region, while stay-at-home restrictions ended for another 14,000.

But 10,000 people remain under evacuation orders in Castellón, where a fire was still out of control as Spain braced for its fourth heat wave of the summer.

More than 1,160 square kilometers (448 square miles) have burned across France this year, according to the Interior Ministry.

Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent, warming at more than twice the global average, according to the European Union’s Copernicus climate service. Western Europe recorded its hottest June on record, with extreme heat and widespread dryness contributing to the spread and intensification of fires in France and Spain, Copernicus said.

Adamson reported from Paris. Elena Becatoros in Athens, Suman Naishadham in Madrid, Alex Turnbull in Souge, France, and John Leicester and Masha Macpherson in Paris contributed.

Wildfires advances near Le Proge region, western France, Thursday, July 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Caroline Blumberg)

A fire burns in a forest near Claouey, during wildfires in southwestern France, Wednesday, July 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)

A car burned by a wildfire sits in Piedralaves, Ávila province, Spain, as the fire continues to spread, Tuesday, July 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Firefighters use controlled burning to halt a wildfire that continues to spread near Cebreros, Ávila province, Spain, Tuesday, July 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Firefighters battle a blaze outside Lanton, during wildfires in southwestern France, Tuesday, July 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)

A De Havilland Canada Dash 8-400 drops fire retardant over a forest near Saint-Jean-d'Illac, during wildfires in southwestern France, Tuesday, July 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)

Firefighters battle a blaze outside Lanton, during wildfires in southwestern France, Tuesday, July 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)