The New Orleans Saints are still looking for their next head coach, although Detroit Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn appears to be the frontrunner. While he’s best known for his time with the Lions, Glenn spent his final year as a player with the New Orleans Saints and served as the defensive backs coach from 2016 to 2020. General Manager Mickey Loomis likes to hire familiar faces, but Glenn’s resume gives more than enough reason to believe he can be a good head coach.
The Detroit Lions entered the season with one of the most stacked rosters in football but suffered an absurd amount of injuries throughout the season. Despite losing star players like Aidan Hutchinson, Glenn’s unit remained one of the best in the league and helped guide the team to the top seed in the NFC playoff picture. Fellow head coach candidate Ben Johnson recently said that Glenn is “more prepared to be a head coach than maybe, anybody I’ve ever seen,” which should increase his intrigue across the NFL.
Head coach hires are difficult to predict, but all signs point toward Aaron Glenn being a solid hire for the Saints. The only problem is Glenn might not want to come to New Orleans. According to a recent report by New York Jets beat reporter Brian Costello, Glenn wants to land with New York. While the Jets have not yet hired anyone, New Orleans might have to pivot and hire a different head coach to replace Dennis Allen.
Aaron Glenn has told people “the Jets” are his first choice for a HC job, per @BrianCoz pic.twitter.com/Ivwf6ZnSOK
— B/R Gridiron (@brgridiron) January 15, 2025
Aaron Glenn Might Not Want to Be Saints Next Head Coach
The New Orleans Saints are not the most attractive destination for head coach candidates. While teams like the New England Patriots could offer a young franchise quarterback and plenty of cap space, the New Orleans Saints are stuck with the unremarkable Derek Carr and a salary cap nightmare brought on by almost a decade of salary cap manipulation. No matter who the Saints hire, the team will struggle to build a sustained winner in this environment.
With that being said, are the New York Jets a better fit? While nobody can deny the appeal of America’s largest city, the organization itself is in disarray. Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams probably won’t be back, they have no clear path to find a young quarterback, and owner Woody Johnson has made all the wrong headlines over the past month or two. From the outside looking in, neither place is a perfect landing spot, so perhaps the Saints could convince Glenn to change his mind and be their next head coach.
Plan B
Of course, if the Saints lose Aaron Glenn to the New York Jets, they could still land a good candidate. The Dallas Cowboys announced Mike McCarthy will not be back in 2025, and New Orleans is reportedly interested in the one-time Super Bowl champion. McCarthy isn’t the NFL’s best head coach by any stretch of the imagination, but he’d fit well with the Saints.
Leading a locker room isn’t easy, and McCarthy has proven over most of the past two decades that he is up for the job. While they have different public perceptions, Mike McCarthy and Saints legend Sean Payton have remarkably similar resumes. Glenn offers the promise of the unknown and should be the preferred option of the two. However, the Saints could do a lot worse than McCarthy, and the former Cowboy should keep the team afloat.
Main Photo: Junfu Han – USA Today Sports
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