FLORHAM PARK, N.J. -- If he loses to the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday, Aaron Glenn will be the first coach to start his New York Jets career with an 0-5 record. That covers more than 60 years, 18 full-time coaches and a lot of futility.
Glenn didn't expect it to go like this, but he knew the inherent challenges in taking over a team that had experienced only one winning season in its previous 14. After all, he lived it with the Detroit Lions -- an 0-8 start in 2021, his first year as the defensive coordinator under Dan Campbell.
"It's not fun being 0-8," Glenn recalled Wednesday. "Man, you get ridiculed, you get talked about. I mean, people are after you in the worst way."
In navigating his current oh-fer, Glenn is relying on his own instincts, along with the knowledge he absorbed from working alongside Campbell, who started 0-10-1 in '21 before the Lions' historic turnaround.
Glenn recently talked to Pro Football Hall of Famer Tony Dungy, who began his coaching career on an 0-5 skid with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Dungy shared his experiences, including a pep talk he received at the time from then-retired coach Dick Vermeil, who told him to remain true to his convictions.
"That really lifted me and helped me at the time when I was -- not struggling, but you question yourself a little bit," Dungy told ESPN on Wednesday. "I was telling Aaron basically the same thing: You're in a good system, you know what you're doing, you believe in it and your players believe in it. You don't have to change. Just keep pounding."
Dungy also reminded Glenn that some of the greatest coaches in history overcame difficult beginnings. Joe Gibbs started 0-5 in his first season. Chuck Noll went 1-13, Jimmy Johnson 1-15 and Bill Walsh 2-14.
"If they gave up and changed, that would've been about 14 Super Bowls [actually, 12 Super Bowl titles] that wouldn't have happened," Dungy said. "That was my message."
Glenn, now a popular target for impatient fans and talk show hosts, continues to insist that the Jets can execute a Lions-like reversal. Detroit was painful because the struggles lasted well into the second year. Campbell was 4-19-1 and faced intense pressure before Detroit's fortunes flipped with playoff appearances in 2023 and 2024.
"We just knew at some point it was going to break through and, once it broke through, man, we were just rolling," Glenn recalled. "Listen, I feel the same way about here, and I understand how the fans feel, I do. I'm hurting just like they are.
"But I do know this: I believe in everything that we're doing, and I know there's going to be a breakthrough. And when it breaks through, this thing is going to pop exactly like we all want it to."
For every Dungy, Gibbs, Noll, Johnson and Walsh, there are dozens of coaches that never recovered from bad starts and faded into obscurity. Consider this recent snapshot:
Since 2000, 20 first-time coaches started 0-4, according to ESPN Research. Of the 20, only four reached the playoffs during their tenure with that team. Only two of the four made multiple playoff appearances -- current coaches Kyle Shanahan (San Francisco 49ers) and Zac Taylor (Cincinnati Bengals). Campbell isn't included among the 20 first-timers because he was an interim coach with the Dolphins before landing the Lions job.
From a Jets perspective, the only two coaches to start 0-4 were Lou Holtz (1976) and Adam Gase (2019). History will remember them as washouts. Holtz quit before the end of his first season to become the Arkansas coach; Gase was fired after two seasons (9-23).
Can the Jets turn it around?
Well, the schedule is favorable. Their remaining strength of schedule ranks 28th, according to ESPN's Football Power Index.
No doubt, it will take improvement in a lot of areas on both sides of the ball -- the Jets are last in turnover differential (minus-7) and 23rd in accepted penalties (32) -- but they're starting to create an identity as a run-heavy team. In fact, they average 145 rushing yards per game, third in the NFL. That can be a foundation.
"These things take time, but I believe in everything that we are doing," Glenn said. "I believe in our coaching staff, and I believe in our players."
Historically, an 0-4 hole is virtually insurmountable -- despite the Jets having a 2.7% chance to make the playoffs, per ESPN analytics. Only one team has rebounded from 0-4 to make the postseason -- the 1992 San Diego Chargers, who finished 11-5.
Jets receivers coach Shawn Jefferson was a young receiver on that San Diego team, coached by Bobby Ross. Jefferson has shared that experience with current players.
"It's crazy the things you go through in life, and you never think they're going to come up," Jefferson said. "Me being in a situation like that, I can relate to it. I can say, 'Hey, guys, I remember when I was there.'"
Jefferson used a Mike Tyson-Buster Douglas boxing analogy to describe the Jets' situation -- a heavy underdog under siege.
"You get knocked down and you have to keep pounding," Jefferson said. "Our brand is that we're going to keep pounding."
Taking a half-full view of the Jets' situation, you can say there's hope because three of their four losses were by six points or less. On the flip side, you can say they always find ways to lose, as they did Monday night in their three-fumble, 13-penalty debacle in Miami -- a six-point loss.
Glenn was furious after the game, lashing out at his team in the locker room. Creating a winning culture is extremely difficult.
Dungy recalled his early days as the Tampa Bay coach in '96.
"I remember leaving the stadium -- we lost a game in the last minute to the Seahawks -- and this guy was screaming at me," he said, recalling when the Bucs dropped to 0-4. "He was screaming, 'You stink. We're supposed to be better. You're the worst coach we ever had. I'm never coming back here as long as you're the coach. I'm not coming back until they fire you.'
"There were only about 15,000 in the stands, so I could hear everything. One year later, we were 4-0, playing the Dolphins on national TV before a sellout crowd."
That year, they finished 10-6 and made the divisional round of the playoffs.
"You can't get discouraged," Dungy said.