Hiring of Jets’ Aaron Glenn gets Sean Payton’s seal of approval

There has been a lot of excitement about the Jets’ head coaching hire, including from someone who previously criticized a Jets coordinator.

Broncos head coach Sean Payton congratulated Aaron Glenn on social media following the news that the Lions defensive coordinator had secured the Jets’ vacant position.

“Congratulations, AG! Much deserved,” he wrote on Wednesday on X.

Glenn was Payton’s defensive backs coach with the Saints from 2016-2020.

Payton had taken shots at Jets offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett after taking over the head coaching job in Denver — a role Hackett was fired from — in 2023, while also going after the Jets as a whole.

Payton called Hackett’s work with the Broncos “one of the worst coaching jobs in NFL history” and said in an interview with USA Today that with “everything I heard about last season, we are doing the opposite. »

In other comments Payton made in the interview, he also seemed to take aim at the Jets for their inclusion in “Hard Knocks” that summer.

“We don’t do any of that. The Jets did it this year,” he said. “You look. “Hard knocks”, all that. I can see it coming. Remember when (former Washington owner) Dan Snyder put together that Dream Team? I was with the Giants (in 2000). I was a young coach. I asked myself, “How are we going to compete with them?” Deion (Sanders is) here now. This team won eight games or whatever. So listen…just do the work.

The comment angered some Jets players, but then-head coach Robert Saleh avoided commenting on the matter.

The Jets announced Wednesday that they have hired Glenn, who played for the team for eight seasons, making him the organization’s 19th full-time head coach.

The hire was praised by a number of former members of the organization, including former safety Victor Green and wide receiver Keyshawn Johnson.

“Turnaround, man,” Green said. “I really think ‘AG’ is the person who can turn things around. I know the head coach is in him now. He is there. He has it.