Harrison Phillips went from winning 14 games with the Minnesota Vikings in 2024 to losing 14 games with the New York Jets in 2025.

Playing defensive tackle for his third NFL team since the Buffalo Bills selected him out of Stanford in the third round of the 2018 draft, Phillips noticed what he characterized as a “cancerous” mindset that had been festering in the Jets organization.

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While defending now-second-year head coach Aaron Glenn Thursday on radio row at the Super Bowl, Phillips spoke about the “same-old-Jets” mentality Glenn has had to combat.

When asked by Roundtable Sports why Jets fans should believe in Glenn’s vision, Phillips delivered a thoughtful response about a franchise that hasn’t made the playoffs since the 2010 season and has a reputation for poor decision-making.

Phillips emphasized that “culture matters.”

“I think AG inherited a very cancerous, truculent group, top to bottom,” Phillips told Roundtable Sports. “It’s not individual people’s fault. I was there for one season, it was a very difficult season, and I almost wanted to waver on some of my thoughts and my beliefs and my optimism. And so I can’t imagine being there for year after year after year after year and not seeing the results that you wanted.

“And it tainted people because, ‘My coach is going to get fired, my teammate’s going to get fired. I’m going to be a free agent. I might get fired. I got to play for me, I got to make sure that my tape’s hot, regardless of what the system is asking me to do or the scheme’s telling me to do.'”

Phillips continued: “And then young players come in and see, ‘Oh, that’s my vet and that’s how they’re acting, so I’m going to act like that, too.'”

Phillips, who started all 17 games for a Jets defense that produced an NFL-low four takeaways and gave up the second-most points per game (29.6) this season, illustrated that cascade of issues as a “long chain of things” that can’t be fixed overnight — or in one year.

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“I think AG’s mindset of any coach I’ve been around, to deal what we had to deal with this season, to be as consistent as he was to us through that whole thing was super cool to see,” Phillips said, via Roundtable Sports.

“I think that consistency, as well as making the jump from Year 1 to Year 2 as a head football coach, more of his people in the building, more of his thumbprint on the culture, I think we have to win more games.”

Last month, Glenn began overhauling his coaching staff, although he raised eyebrows by waiting three weeks to fire offensive coordinator Tanner Engstrand. Former Indianapolis Colts and Carolina Panthers head coach Frank Reich will replace Engstrand as the team’s new OC.

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In total, Glenn has moved on from nine assistants this offseason, per ESPN.

Glenn will have new coordinators on both sides of the ball, and he still needs to find a quarterback for the future, but Phillips appears steadfast in his trust of the former Detroit Lions defensive coordinator and Jets standout cornerback.

Phillips told the New York Post that so much losing — the Jets haven’t won more than seven games in a season since the 2015 campaign — as well as roster and staff turnover can foster that cancerous mindset he described.

“It always felt like it was the ‘same old Jets.’ That’s the phrase, I think someone said that,” Phillips said, per the Post. “I think the narrative of if you get into the mindset that it’s the same old Jets, that’s a cancerous thought, a very cancerous idea to be a part of. That’s a cancerous thought to have.”

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In Phillips’ eyes, the Jets have the agency to steer clear of that deleterious thinking.