Two months after an exhaustive search led him to HC Aaron Glenn and GM Darren Mougey, Jets' Chairman Woody Johnson is pleased with the new direction of his team.
"You saw his personality," Johnson said of Glenn on Monday at the 2025 NFL Annual League Meeting in Palm Beach, FL. "He's all football. Accountability. Very direct person. He's been a success his whole life. Just an amazing career. He was a very high draft [pick], performed exactly the way he was drafted and then after the draft, he's been a success. I mean, a major success. He's a different guy. He's a football player. He's got that authenticity that you can't make up. You either are or you aren't. So, leadership comes that way. I'm very impressed with Aaron and if anybody can change anything a winning culture, it's Aaron"
While Glenn, who was the No. 12 overall selection by the Jets in the 1994 NFL Draft, played 15 seasons and worked his way up the coaching ladder, Mougey planted his flag in Denver the previous 12 seasons until he got the call to lead the Green & White.
"Mougey is pretty good, too," Johnson said. "He's a different guy. He's been a guy [who] started as an intern and went up all the ways to become assistant general manager on his own. I thought very, very thoughtful and I think he's got an extra gear in the way he processes information that I've been impressed with as a manager. A guy that can recognize manager talent. Very good, nuanced, honest with people, honest with players and staff. And also has a good, also has a very good business sense, I think, which I think is important because business is basically logic and management. I'm very impressed with both."
Johnson, who said in January he had to look in the mirror and be a better owner, is committed to putting the resources behind Glenn and Mougey so they can build a winner.
"The biggest part is supporting Aaron and Moug in terms of what they're trying to do and helping them and supporting them 100 percent, which I'm going to do," he said. "Just try to be as innovative, as creative as we can all be and be open to everything, particularly with the players. Better relationship with the players. I mean, you can all love your players at the end of the day, but if they don't feel that, they're not going to play for the best. And that comes from the coach. I know he loves the players and Mougey loves the players. We all have to because the essence of the game is the player. That's really what we're all about. How do you get the most out of each player?"
Calling the Aaron Rodgers' trade acquisition a "good experiment" that didn't work out, Johnson said he thought the Jets made the right choice by moving on from the future Hall of Famer and he believes success is on the horizon for their starting quarterback -- Justin Fields.
"I think Justin Fields is going to be a total winner for us," Johnson said. "He's going to be the starter, as you found out. I've been impressed with him since his college days. It was he or Trevor Lawrence. I think he's going to be really good. He's got to be put in the right situation and with Aaron [Glenn], they talk, I think, every day. I think it's going to be very interesting to see how Justin progresses. He's going to make a giant leap. He's a dual threat, which we haven't had in a while. I don't know if we've ever had this kind of threat and we'll put him in a good position to win."
Sounding competitive as ever, Johnson, 77, said he would continue to explore all avenues to improve his organization.
"I want to be No. 1 in everything. All of our people do," he said. "We want to be the No. 1 like we are in girls flag football. We're No. 1 or No. 2 in the country and that's where we want to be in everything including on the field, but also off the field and all of our philanthropy. So we want to be No. 1. So, if there are areas that we can improve -- and I think there are always areas we can improve -- we're going to do it.
"Relationships with the players are very, very important," he said. "So we want to make sure the players are involved now. Whatever they want to comment on, have a committee for the players if they like soufflé this or fish that or steak that, they should tell us. If they're getting bored with the food or they're getting bored with the way the place looks, let me know. I can't do anything if they don't tell me. So, we're going to have a lot better communication, I think, with the players in terms of what they're looking at every day. Because if I was looking at the same thing every day, I might get bored of it, too."
