Dan Campbell pays respects to longtime friend Aaron Glenn after Week 3 shootout

Aaron Glenn's brief tenure as New York Jets' head coach can be described as rocky, at best. Realistically, rocky is being generous, as most of the past 18 months have been spent at the bottom of the mountain. Even after a hard-fought loss on Sunday that many could see as a moral victory, some fans and media alike are busy opining on Glenn's continued clock mismanagement.

Say what you want about the embattled coach, but throughout his football journey, those around him have way more good to say than bad. That was highlighted on Sunday, as Glenn coached directly against his former boss, Lions head coach Dan Campbell.

Campbell is facing his own scrutiny right now, but his time in Detroit has yielded franchise-changing results. His nod of approval is a big plus. Or, at least, a promising sign for Jets fans desperate for a similar turnaround. Campbell made it clear after the game that he believed Glenn was built for the task ahead.

Dan Campbell has a message for New York Jets fans

The Jets may have lost on Sunday, but given that injuries have hampered their depth chart, the fact that Detroit is clearly a more talented team, and the fact that the game was on the road, having the ball with the chance to win with under a minute left should speak volumes to the team's improvement this season.

The defense held their own when they had to, making enough stops to allow the offense to dig their way out of a 14-point hole in the second half. The offense made big plays, led by Geno Smith's 321 passing yards and Kenyon Sadiq and Garrett Wilson's combined 212 receiving yards. All facets were clicking, to some degree.

The Lions were too much at the end, going down the field to score the winning touchdown just before the two-minute warning. But the production the Jets put up can't be ignored. Aaron Glenn, for all his clock-based follies and odd media rhetoric, has this team playing good football.

While Tennessee is a dumpster fire and both Green Bay and Detroit have underperformed, the Jets have finished all three games they've played so far, exceeding expectations. Glenn deserves some level of credit for that.

Dan Campbell echoed this when talking about how Glenn has the Jets playing right now. He credited New York with giving Detroit "all we can handle" and shouldered the head coach with the bulk of that credit.

"That team gave use all we can handle... They played hard, they take on the identity of that head coach, which is a credit to him."

Dan Campbell

It cannot be overstated how similar both Glenn's and Campbell's jobs are. Both men are trying to deliver their former teams – franchises absolutely haunted by abject failure and humiliation – a Super Bowl.

They are the only two men who can relate to that exact mission. And Campbell has already had some success on that path. So when he believes the Jets are playing well because they are "taking on the identity" of Glenn, that says something.

Of course, he has to say nice things about his former friend and employee. But he doesn't necessarily have to be so glowing. And if the Jets didn't give the Lions a fight, he wouldn't have had the ability to make such comments.

So while 1-2 is a losing record, Jets fans can hold their heads high after this week. And Dan Campbell's statements about Aaron Glenn perfectly encapsulate why.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow