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Jets Offense Predicted To Have 'Lions' Flavor In 2025

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Adam Schultz | Last updated Jun 25, 2025 9:48 PM ET

The way forward for the New York Jets under Aaron Glenn and Tanner Engstrand offensively is going to be by running the football.

Breece Hall, Braelon Allen, and Isaiah Davis will be the three-pronged attack behind a solid offensive line that now has two first-round picks at tackle (Olu Fashanu and Armand Membou) to bookend the unit.

With Glenn and Engstrand both coming from the Detroit Lions, where the offense under Ben Johnson produced a scintillating run game over the past two seasons, there is a thought that the Jets could look to do something similar.

And The Athletic's Zach Rosenblatt thinks Glenn might be trying to re-create the magic from Detroit in the Big Apple.

"Glenn brought offensive coordinator Tanner Engstrand with him from Detroit, where Engstrand was a crucial part of the creative Lions offense, one of the highest-scoring and most explosive in the NFL," Rosenblatt wrote.

"That was an offense built around the efficiency of Jared Goff, surrounding him with explosive and productive weapons — a group that the Jets are trying to replicate, in a way, in New York. The idea: Use Breece Hall and Braelon Allen as a pseudo-Jahmyr Gibbs-David Montgomery duo at running back."

Last season, Gibbs and Montgomery combined for an eye-watering 28 touchdowns and 2,189 yards and averaged 149.4 yards per game (ranked third). In 2023, the pair combined for 23 touchdowns and 1,960 yards, averaging 134.3 (ranked sixth).

That is quite the bar to aim at.

Now, we aren't expecting the Jets' trio to get close to that, but be a key part of how the offense operates. We know the potential Hall possesses, and that has to translate into something tangible in 2025.

Allen is a bruising runner who, like Davis last season, did show glimpses of what he could become in his rookie season, and behind a solid offensive line, the running lanes are expected to be open.

Engstrand was the passing game coordinator for the past two seasons in Detroit, so we imagine he will have a fair idea of how the run game worked, as well as Glenn, who was the defensive coordinator.

Trying to emulate Sonic and Knuckles is an admirable thing to do, and if the Jets get half of what that duo has done in the past couple of seasons, Justin Fields is going to have one hell of a run game to fall back on in 2025.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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