When Todd Bowles was the Jets head coach, he wanted to hire Aaron Glenn as the DB coach, but Glenn opted to stay in Cleveland. Now, 10 years later, they'll share the practice field when Bowles' Buccaneers meet Glenn's Jets for two joint practices at the Atlantic Health Jets Training Center this week before Friday's preseason matchup between the two clubs at MetLife Stadium.

"X's and O's wise, he's outstanding," Glenn said of Bowles. Their relationship started when Glenn was still a player; Bowles coached him for a season with the Jets in 2000 and then for his final season in Dallas.

"He's demanding in his own way. He has this quiet persona about himself, but you know exactly where he stands," Glenn said. "He doesn't BS players either, and that's what I like and I've learned a lot from him."

The Jets and Buccaneers will get different looks and a lot of valuable reps and Glenn and Bowles are on the same page with how they want practice to go.

"This is a team that's been to the playoffs for a number of years, so I'm looking forward to seeing our guys go up against this team," Glenn said of Tampa.

Overall, he wants to see two days of improvement and discipline from his Jets.

"We have two different schemes that we're coming in with and now once you bring in another element from another team, cover structures, run plays, pass concepts, man it really tests your discipline on how you're doing things because at some point, you get used to your offense," Glenn said. "But when you have another team come in, and that's the good thing about joint practices, is you get to test what you do against another team."

Tampa WR Emeka Egbuka will provide a good test for Jets CBs Brandon Stephens and Azareye'h Thomas with QB Baker Mayfield throwing the rock. TE Cade Otton is also playmaking threat,  he made a one-handed TD catch earlier in camp during a red zone period and had 207 receptions, 2,018 receiving yards (9.7 per) and 11 TDs from 2022-25.

And the battle between rookie edge rusher David Bailey, who is considered fine after tweaking his ankle in Saturday's practice, and All-Pro LT Tristian Wirfs will be an interesting one to watch during team periods.

Offensive coordinator Frank Reich expects practice to be competitive with RBs Breece Hall and Braelon Allen being heavily tested against Bowles' run defense.

"We couldn't be going up against a better defense," Reich said. "We're not super game-planning for them … but just run our core plays, win our one-on-one battles, execute our basic core schemes and then learn from them."

Outside linebacker YaYa Diaby and DT Vita Vea led Tampa with 7 and 4.5 sacks respectively in 2025. They'll be ones to watch against the Jets O-line, featuring the tackle tandem of LT Olu Fashanu and RT Armand Membou, tasked with protecting QB Geno Smith.

The Jets offense has multiple target options for Smith with WRs Garrett Wilson, Adonai Mitchell, Isaiah Williams and rookie Omar Cooper Jr., and so far, he's spread the ball around to his targets. How that continues against a different defense will be something to watch.

Overall, as special teams coordinator Chris Banjo said, these two practices are "another evaluation period" for the Green & White.

"Whether we're competing against ourselves, whether we have an opportunity to compete against another team, our mindset doesn't change within that," he said. "It's another opportunity to get better, another opportunity to grow and chase the one percent we keep speaking about in our room."