Aaron Glenn continues to draw high praise from numerous Saints icons

The New Orleans Saints are reportedly set to interview Detroit Lions DC Aaron Glenn on Friday for the team’s vacant head coaching position.

Within the past couple of days, a number of former Saints have expressed their belief in Glenn, a 15-year NFL veteran and one of the most sought-after candidates of this off-season’s coaching cycle.

In an exclusive interview with DJ Siddiqi of SportsLens as part of his Tostitos partnership, former Saints RB and current college football studio analyst for FOX Sports, Reggie Bush, delves into why he considers Aaron Glenn a perfect fit in New Orleans.

Glenn (2008) and Bush (2006-2010) were briefly teammates in New Orleans during Glenn’s final playing season before embarking on his coaching journey, first as the assistant defensive backs coach for the Cleveland Browns (2014-2015) and later returning to the Saints as defensive backs coach from 2016-2020, where he played a key role in the development of playmakers like Marshon Lattimore, Vonn Bell, C.J. Gardner-Johnson, and Marcus Williams. Since Dan Campbell reached out to Glenn in 2021 with the opportunity to join him in Detroit as the Lions’ defensive coordinator, Glenn’s career has taken off.

Bush highlights the impressive job Glenn has done rebuilding the defense in Detroit and how his side of the football has maintained consistent dominance, despite the swarm of injuries faced by the NFC’s #1 seed this season:

“You’re seeing how much he’s changed the defense this year. Even with the injuries that they’ve had, they’re still playing at a high level. I think it’s the ultimate testament for a coach, whether you’re a good coach or not… You find the real coaching starts when you lose good players, and they lost one of their best players on the defensive end in Aidan Hutchinson… I think he showed that he’s capable, and also he’s a guy that will command respect in the locker room as well. Those guys will know that he’s not only a coach, but he’s a guy who played too.”

Bush discusses what Glenn brings to the table and why he could be just what the Saints are looking for:

“I think what A.G. brings to the table is exactly what New Orleans needs. We’ve got to get our defense back to that attacking style of play, and we have good offensive weapons… I believe A.G.’s style of defense and just that attacking style—that’s what we had when I was in New Orleans. That’s what helped us to win the Super Bowl. We were always a good offensive team when I got there, but once our defense picked up, that’s when we became a Super Bowl champion team. I’ve been a part of a couple of different championship teams. And that’s always been the DNA of championship teams.”

Bush discusses what he believes should be the Saints’ top priority in this off-season’s head coaching search, stressing the importance of embracing the passionate culture of the Big Easy:

“I think they’re definitely going to need to find someone who will not only be a great coach, but somebody who will be able to take in the culture of New Orleans because I think that’s important… When you go to New Orleans, when you coach in New Orleans, you need to understand the culture down there. It’s not just about coaching the football team, but people eat, sleep, and breathe the Saints in New Orleans… It’s a football-first city. They need somebody who is going to be able to lead not only the team but the city as well in the way that Sean Payton did.”

Bush isn’t the only Saints icon to endorse the widely coveted defensive guru. Earlier this week, future first-ballot Pro Football Hall of Fame QB and New Orleans legend, Drew Brees, also named Glenn as his preferred candidate to be the next head coach of the black and gold:

Photograph by Fred Kfoury III/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Additionally, 11-year NFL tight end and current Lions HC Dan Campbell, who spent the 2009 campaign in New Orleans (missing the entire season due to injury) before returning to the Saints as assistant head coach and tight ends coach from 2016-2020, continues to speak highly of his defensive coordinator as the challenge of replacing him looms. He jokingly made it clear that “If nobody wants him, I’ll take him again.”

Photo by Wesley Hitt/Getty Images

During a one-on-one interview with Arizona Cardinals insider Kyle Odegard last month, former Saints All-Pro LB and current Fox Sports color analyst Jonathan Vilma shared his thoughts on why Glenn is his ideal fit for New Orleans:

“...I like that hire because Aaron Glenn is about developing players. He’s about structure, organization and not that other coaches aren’t, but you can see proof in the pudding of what he’s done in Detroit. And it’s not with a bunch of superstars at all. It’s with fourth-round guys, fifth-round guys, backups to the backups that are playing and playing well... There are going to be some really good players that may not stay on the team. But three, four years from now, like you see in Detroit, that didn’t happen overnight. That took four years. And there was a point where people were calling for Dan Campbell to be fired. All of a sudden, they start to win a few games, they get hot. Then last year they got really hot and now this year they’re on a roll. So you gotta preach patience and allow the coach to do what he does best and Aaron Glenn, he does a phenomenal job of developing the players, but you have to give them time and if the organization is going to buy into that and buy into Aaron Glenn and what the vision is going to be four years from now, then I think it’s a great hire. If they move on from Darren Rizzi, I think that’d be the next best option.”

Building on Vilma’s point regarding Glenn’s above-average player development, much of the success in that area can be attributed to his ability to connect with players on a personal level, as further explained in this video:

Are you sold on Aaron Glenn potentially becoming the 16th head coach in franchise history?