Jets coach Aaron Glenn, GM Darren Mougey put their first stamp on the team subtly and competently

In the previous two seasons, the Jets worked under the belief that bringing one person into the building could change the attitude of everyone else inside it. They banked on the idea that one future Hall of Fame quarterback’s presence alone would raise expectations, improve the team and rectify the organizational flaws that have kept them from reaching the playoffs since 2010.

Obviously, that did not work.

And when it didn’t, they went out and added more high-priced star power on top of it, doubling down on their maniacal plans.

That didn’t work either.

Maybe this new way of thinking will.

It’s a philosophy brought to the Jets by new general manager Darren Mougey and new coach Aaron Glenn, and it is the complete opposite of the old one. It isn’t about one player trying to make everyone else something they aren’t; it’s about finding players who already are what is needed and putting them together.

That thinking has been employed by this bunch for a few months now, but it was on public display for the first time in this weekend’s NFL Draft. The new decision-makers added seven Jets over five rounds, hunting and weaving their way through the process with three trade-ups on Saturday alone, all in the name of assembling a roster of like-minded individuals who they think can alter the direction of the franchise.

“The number one thing is we really got guys who fit the brand of who we are going to be,” Glenn said on Saturday afternoon. “That was something we talked about even starting in free agency up to the draft. We’re very intentional about guys who want to be a part of this organization. I would say the same thing when it comes to coaches also. Everyone fits. We want to continue that trend. Once you do that, man, the core of each person is the same. We might look different, we might act different, but the core of everyone here is the same. That’s what we want to try to do.”

That brand?

“Tough, physical, violent, aggressive,” Glenn said. “A resilient attitude. If we continue to get guys like that, I mean, you’ll start to see the brand show up on the grass.”

It’s why none of the picks already were household names. It’s why they did the most boring thing any first-time front office can do, selecting an offensive lineman in the first round. It’s why they focused more on psychological traits than physical ones, why they bypassed some positions of need (quarterback, defensive line) in favor of stockpiling personality prototypes.

It’s why Glenn had a nearly Pavlovian response when one of the prospects — safety Malachi Moore, who was taken in the fourth round — was referred to as having a “dawg” mentality.

“When you hear that, I mean, shoot, that gets you excited about the player,” Glenn said. “He fits us to a T.”

It would have been easy for Mougey to make a huge splash in his first draft the way, say, Jaguars general manager James Gladstone did, trading a load of valuable picks to get up to second overall and taking flashy Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter. It could have put him on the map, made him a darling with the national media and fed the always hungry appetite for Jets narratives.

Instead of cannonballing into the pool, though, he slid in imperceptibly down the ladder at the shallow end.

Before the draft began, Mougey was asked if he expected to make a statement or have a special connection with his first-ever pick.

“I hope to have a special connection with all of them,” he said.

Already he was seeing something many of the people who sat in his office before him didn’t always focus on: a future and a clear path toward it.

“We stuck to the board and feel really good about it,” Mougey said of the process. “We feel really good about the way it’s unfolded and the players we’ve been able to add.”

The process doesn’t end here. Mougey noted that even after this weekend, the Jets will be evaluating UFL games and spending the rest of the offseason scouring the undrafted and unsigned talent.

“We are constantly looking to add pieces to the team that we think can help at all positions,” he said. “By no means is the roster ever complete.”

That’s not a strange concept, but for the Jets, it is a refreshing one.

They spent too much time these past few seasons — and probably longer — trying to build a winner from the top down. They were too focused on getting big names and hoping the masses would benefit from it. To steal a lightning-rod economics term, it was an attempt at trickle-down football.

Now they are building from the bottom up. They are making certain that their second- and third-tier players are just as invested in the process as the upper crust, creating a solid base of everyone in the building pulling in the same direction.

Glenn and Mougey have put their first stamp on the Jets. They did so subtly, competently and confidently. For the Jets, almost unrecognizably.

This draft may not be remembered for delivering any marquee players to the Jets, but if things go according to plan, it may go down as the first step toward making the Jets a marquee team again.

By Tom Rock

tom.rock@newsday.com@TomRock_Newsday

Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.