The Jets met virtually with eight candidates in the first round of interviews for their vacant defensive coordinator job, the team announced Friday.
They have completed interviews with Wink Martindale, Jim Leonhard, Chris Harris, Jim O’Neil, DeMarcus Covington, Daronte Jones, Mathieu Araujob and Ephraim Banda.
Martindale, 65, has the most play-calling experience of the group. He has spent the past two seasons as defensive coordinator at the University of Michigan after two seasons (2022-23) as the Giants’ defensive coordinator, six seasons as the Ravens’ defensive coordinator (2012-17) and one season as the Broncos’ defensive coordinator (2010).
Leonhard, who started 40 games over three seasons as a safety for the Jets, has served as the Broncos’ defensive backs coach/pass game coordinator for the past two seasons. He added assistant head coach to his title this season.
Harris joined Aaron Glenn’s staff as defensive backs coach/passing game coordinator last offseason and finished as interim defensive coordinator after Steve Wilks’ firing.
O’Neil coached with Glenn in Detroit, where O’Neil worked as a defensive assistant in 2024-25. He got his first NFL gig with the Jets in 2009 as a defensive quality control coach before serving as assistant defensive backs coach from 2010-12. He was the Browns’ defensive coordinator for two seasons (2014-15), along with NFL stops as an assistant in Buffalo (2013), San Francisco (2016) and Oakland/Las Vegas (2019-20).
Covington also has experience as a defensive coordinator in the NFL, holding that position with New England during the 2024 season. He first joined the Patriots in 2016 under Bill Belichick. In 2025, Covington was the defensive line coach/run game coordinator with Green Bay.
Jones was the passing game coordinator and defensive backs coach with the Vikings. He arrived in Minnesota in 2020, leaving for one season to be LSU’s defensive coordinator in 2021.
Araujo spent the past four seasons with the Dolphins, coaching the defensive backs.
Banda has been the Browns’ safeties coach since 2023 after spending several years coaching in college.
Jets Clips
Dante Moore will not be entering the NFL in 2026.
The Oregon quarterback announced that he will be returning to school for another season. Moore led the Ducks to the college football semifinals, but they lost to Indiana last Friday.
Indiana’s quarterback Fernando Mendoza is the favorite to be the first player selected in April’s draft given the Raiders’ need for a long-term answer at quarterback. Moore was seen as a contender to be the next player drafted given the Jets’ need for the same, but Wednesday’s decision opens the field up to a number of possibilities at that spot.
With Moore staying in school, names like Ty Simpson and Trinidad Chambliss will now jockey to be the second quarterback off the board.
The Jets are heading into the offseason with serious questions about their quarterback position and they’re moving to add one option to the roster ahead of the new league year.
Tom Pelissero of NFL Media reports that the team is going to sign Bailey Zappe to a future contract. The pact will give Zappe a spot on the 90-man roster for the offseason.
Zappe spent the 2025 season on the Browns’ practice squad. He started for the Browns in Week 18 of the 2024 season and made eight starts for the Patriots over the previous two seasons. He is 208-of-335 for 2,223 yards, 11 touchdowns and 12 interceptions over his entire career.
Justin Fields, Tyrod Taylor, and Brady Cook all started games for the Jets in 2025. Fields and Cook remain under contract for 2026.
During his two-year detour with the Jets, quarterback Aaron Rodgers had plenty to say about the culture of the organization. On Thursday, he had something else to say about his most recent former team.
The comment was made while Rodgers was expressing appreciation for the leadership provided in Pittsburgh by coach Mike Tomlin.
“One thing I really love — and it’s kind of the antithesis of where I was — is there’s not really any leaks in the boat,” Rodgers told reporters. “Every year, you have difficulties and adversity, both on the field and off the field, and to go through a season like this, and to be able to focus on football and not have a lot of other little bullshit out there has been really nice.”
The “other little bullshit” wasn’t quite so little, as Rodgers saw it, in New York.
In December 2023, Rodgers (who was rehabbing his torn Achilles tendon at the time) sounded off on leaks that quarterback Zach Wilson was reluctant to resume playing after being benched during Rodgers’s absence.
“What is your impetus, what is your motivation to try and bury someone like that?” Rodgers told Pat McAfee. “And that’s a problem with the organization. You know, we need to get to the bottom of whatever this is coming from and put a stop to it privately, because there’s no place in a winning culture where — and this is not the only time. There’s been a bunch of other leaks.”
Added Rodgers at the time: “I think it’s chickenshit at its core, and I think it has no place in a winning organization.”
But the Jets aren’t a winning organization. For various reasons. Most of which trace to the very top of the pyramid.
The success in Pittsburgh has been about more than the absence of leaks. Rodgers himself has wisely avoided contributing to the “other little bullshit” by not appearing on McAfee’s show every Tuesday. Rodgers often got way too comfortable in that setting, saying things that became fodder for scrutiny and more reporting.
With the Steelers, Rodgers has kept his media appearances to the minimum. He has chosen to focus on football, fulfilling his weekly obligations to speak with reporters and nothing more.
The results speak for themselves, thanks in part to a missed 44-yard field goal that would have kept Rodgers and the Steelers out of the playoffs.
Regardless, they rebounded nicely from an embarrassing 26-7 home loss to the Bills. They’re back in the playoffs. And they have a chance to notch their first postseason win since January 2017.
At the time, none of the other 13 playoff coaches were coaching their current teams. (Sean McVay had been hired by the Rams three days earlier, and Kyle Shanahan would be hired by the 49ers three days later.) Only one of the other 2025 playoff quarterbacks was in the NFL (Matthew Stafford, with the Lions).
Now, the coach and the quarterback who were on the opposing sidelines in Super Bowl XLV will join forces in an effort to win their second career Lombardi Trophies. Can they pull it off?
Crazier things have happened. Especially since there’s a non-zero chance that Pittsburgh’s Flex Sealed boat is floating in an ocean of holy water.
With six vacancies (other than the Ravens) and seven teams calling former Ravens coach John Harbaugh after his dismissal on Tuesday, at least one team without a vacancy made the call.
So which team(s) called? (It’s possible that more than one team without an opening called, if at least one of the teams currently looking for a coach did not.)
Here’s a look at the possibilities. And don’t blame us for doing it; Harbaugh’s agent lit the fuse by disclosing that seven teams called.
Jets: By all appearances, first-year coach Aaron Glenn lost the locker room. The final five games, with a minus-137 point differential (27.4 per game), was arguably the worst stretch ever for a franchise with plenty of rough spots. Still, owner Woody Johnson has shown no inclination to fire Glenn — and to owe him more than $40 million to not coach the team.
Dolphins: Michigan man Stephen Ross once pursued Michigan man Jim Harbaugh while the Dolphins still had a coach under contract. Why wouldn’t Ross make the call about Harbaugh’s brother, given the currently tenuous status of Mike McDaniel?
Bills: What if the Bills lose this weekend? Is it crazy to think the Bills would consider making a change? That said, swapping out one coach who failed to get to the Super Bowl during the prime years of a generational talent for another coach who failed to get to the Super Bowl during the prime years of a generational talent seems odd.
Steelers: If the team thinks Mike Tomlin, who seems to have a TV offer in his back pocket, could be leaving after the playoff run ends, it needs to be thinking about the next coach. Why not Harbaugh?
Bengals: There’s no way Mike Brown will finance Zac Taylor’s buyout and pay whatever it would take to get Harbaugh.
Colts: Owner Carlie Irsay-Gordon has said Shane Steichen will be back. Could she view Harbaugh as an upgrade who may not be available if a change is made in 2027?
Chiefs: Andy Reid will be back for 2026. The phone call (if it happened) may have been as simple as, “Keep us in mind if you’re thinking about taking a year off and returning in 2027.”
Cowboys: See the Chiefs.
Commanders: Dan Quinn’s team badly regressed in 2025. Why wouldn’t owner Josh Harris at least consider the possibility of an upgrade to Harbaugh?
Packers: New team president Ed Policy made it clear in June that it’s an up-or-out year for coach Matt LaFleur and G.M. Brian Gutekunst. Could Policy have wanted to let Harlan (the son of former Packers CEO Bob Harlan) know that there may be a reason to let the wild-card round play out before making any decisions?
Buccaneers: There’s a vague sense still lingering that ownership could make a coaching change. Harbaugh’s availability could be the thing that pushes the Bucs off the fence.
At least one of those teams made the call. Maybe more than one. And if one of those teams fires its head coach in the coming days, it could be the first step toward hiring John Harbaugh.
At a time when all numbers are up for the NFL, one number is down.
Attendance.
Sports Business Journal reports that average crowd size dropped for the first time since the pandemic ended, with 69,055 per game.
The percentage of available inventory sold to fans dropped from 98.3 percent to 97.6 percent, with 12 teams selling 100 percent of their tickets.
Three teams were under 93 percent: the Jaguars (91 percent), the Jets (90.8 percent), and the Titans (85.2 percent). The Titans had the biggest drop in attendance, by 9.1 percent. The Jets saw a 5.1-percent decrease, and the definitely not dysfunctional Browns had a 3.9-percent reduction.
The 69,055 average attendance remains the fifth highest since Sports Business Journal began tabulating attendance in 2004.
Jets General Manager Darren Mougey said at a Tuesday press conference that he believes the team can be competitive in 2026 and one way they could help that cause is by holding onto one of the best players from this year’s team.
Running back Breece Hall set career highs with 243 carries and 1,065 yards before sitting out Week 18 and he can become a free agent in March. Mougey was asked on Tuesday whether the team will push to bring Hall back.
“Breece is a good player,” Mougey said, via a transcript from the team. “I want as many good players back as we can. Like I mentioned, I met with probably 50 players yesterday, I met with Breece yesterday, had a lot of good conversations. So, we’ll go through this process and we’ll see how free agency unfolds, but we want to add good players.”
If they can’t come to terms on a long-term extension with Hall, the Jets could use a franchise tag to secure his rights.
“I won’t get into hypotheticals and contracts, or anything like that, but we’ll exhaust all the different options and see where that ends up,” Mougey said.
Hall was a second-round pick in 2022. He has 755 carries for 3,398 yards and 18 touchdowns along with 188 catches for 1,642 yards and nine touchdowns for his career.
The Jets finished out the 2025 season by losing five straight games by a combined score of 188-54, which made it hard to see many signs that the team is moving in the right direction under head coach Aaron Glenn and General Manager Darren Mougey.
Glenn and Mougey remain on the job, however, and their Tuesday press conference was not filled with discourse about how far the team is from turning the corner. Mougey declared that he is more confident than ever in “what we have going” and said that he believes that work can begin to bear some tangible fruit next season.
“I believe we can be competitive and respectable right away. Next year,” Mougey said, via SNY.
Mougey pointed to the draft assets the team accumulated by trading Sauce Gardner and Quinnen Williams as well as their cap space as reasons to think that the future will be brighter than the present. There are a lot of places on the roster for the team to address with their picks and cap space, but quarterback will be at the top of the list.
Glenn noted at the press conference that Justin Fields and Brady Cook remain under contract, but neither one will inspire the kind of outside confidence that Mougey has in the team’s future and the GM said the team will “exhaust every option” to find a better solution at the position. If they can’t do that, patience in the duo’s work will likely be harder to come by at this time next year.
There was plenty for Bills fans to celebrate during the final regular season at Highmark Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
Buffalo scored touchdowns on five of their eight possessions and their defense didn’t give up much of anything to the Jets during a 35-8 win. The victory makes the Bills the sixth seed in the AFC playoffs and they are set to be in Jacksonville for a wild card game next weekend.
The Bills rested most of their starters and quarterback Josh Allen played just one snap to keep his consecutive starts streak alive before giving way to Mitchell Trubisky. Trubisky would go 22-of-29 for 259 yards and four touchdowns over the rest of the afternoon. The Bills also got 151 yards on 21 carries from Ray Davis and the Jets defense will need some major renovations before the team returns to the field next season.
Sunday’s game was their 17th straight without an interception, which makes them the first team in league history to go without an interception for an entire season. The issues go far beyond that and they’ll also need a better answer at quarterback because they got very little from Justin Fields, Tyrod Taylor and Brady Cook this season.
The Jets had a -134 point differential over their final five games of the season, which has led some to wonder if they may also be in the market for a better answer at head coach. Indications are that Aaron Glenn will be back, but there’s been little tangible reason to buy into his repeated message that there’s a plan for success in place with the franchise.
Their plan to address any of those needs will be helped by the No. 2 overall draft pick. Sunday’s loss along with the Giants’ win over the Raiders means that the Jets will be the second team on the clock in April. They’ll also have the Colts’ first-round pick and they’ll need all the talent they can find.
Buffalo’s plans won’t include any rebuilding. Their focus will be on trying to finally break through in the AFC and make it to the Super Bowl for the first time in more than 30 years. That will likely call for them to win three road games in a row, so they’ll have to hope that this week’s rest did everyone’s bodies some good.
The Bills are cruising to their 12th win of the season against the Jets on Sunday afternoon, but they may have to find someone else to do their kicking in their playoff opener next week.
Matt Prater has been ruled out with a right quad injury in the second half in Buffalo. Prater missed a couple of games with the injury before returning to action on Sunday.
With Prater out, the Bills went for two after a Gabe Davis touchdown catch in the third quarter. They were successful and now lead the Jets 29-0.
Michael Badgley replaced Prater during his previous absence. He was released earlier this week and has not signed with another club.
