Dial it back to the 2022 Senior Bowl. Coaches from the Jets were overseeing the National team. Coaches from the Detroit Lions, including HC Dan Campbell and DC Aaron Glenn, were working with the American team.
Also there hoping to show his talent was Florida State star Jermaine Johnson, who a couple of months later became one of three first-round draft picks ( Sauce Gardner and Garrett Wilson were the others) of the Green & White. With the two team's staffs in Mobile, AL, for the annual game, the Jets were coming off a 4-13 season and Detroit a 3-13-1 campaign in the 2021.
Speaking to SiriusXM, Johnson, who is coming back after a torn Achilles tendon that derailed his 2024 season in Week 2, said that he sees the parallels as Glenn begins to settle in as the Jets' 22nd head coach.
"You got to look at the product he put on the field or that he was partly responsible for putting on the field in Detroit," Johnson said. "And what I was most impressed with is how it started for him in Detroit. Very similar to what he's coming into now, but instead he gets his hands on the whole organization in terms of being a leader.
"And obviously Detroit was in the same boat as us because they were both at the Senior Bowl when I was there. And then they [Detroit under Campbell and Glenn's defense] built it up and they had a great season last season. And so, to have someone like that at the helm that hasn't only played and done it, hasn't only done it at a high level, hasn't only done in New York, hasn't only built it from the ground up, but also is a defensive mind. Obviously, I'm jumping for joy over here. And when I spoke to him, he believes everything I believe in. I'm really excited."
Glenn, the former Lions' high-profile DC, had a key role in Detroit's consistent improvement from 3-13-1 (2021) to 9-8 (2022) to 12-5 (2023) to 15-2 (2024). The Lions won back-to-back NFC North crowns in 2023-24 and appeared in four postseason contests. After they were eliminated by Washington in the divisional round, the door swung wide open for the Jets to bring back a guy who was a defensive star for the team in the 1990s and began his coaching journey as a scout for the Green & White.
Johnson, speaking to Mike Florio and Chris Simms on Peacock's "Pro Football Talk" show in New Orleans ahead of the Super Bowl, added: "Me knowing that he was a former player and he played at a high level, I know exactly where his head is at, and so we can connect at that level. I'm ready to run through a big wall. Obviously, I haven't played for quite a long time, the longest in my life. Just me understanding what he's done in Detroit, what he's built in Detroit, defensive mind, and he played at a high level, and in New York."
Quincy Williams, the tenacious linebacker who has been with the Jets since 2021, echoed Johnson's words.
"The first thing he said was, he's a Jet," Williams said. "He wants to come back and instill the culture that he felt like should have been here. So that was like the biggest thing. Just be open-minded, I mean, I'm open-minded. He said he wants it to be a two-way street, as far as having a conversation. And so we both are on the same page. So I'm very excited about that."
