The New York Jets on Saturday interviewed five more candidates for their general manager vacancy, including Minnesota senior vice president of player personnel Ryan Grigson and Detroit executive Chris Spielman.
The team also spoke with Denver assistant general manager Darren Mougey, Cincinnati executive Trey Brown and Washington assistant general manager Lance Newmark on a busy day of meetings for the Jets.
New York has interviewed 13 known candidates for the general manager job as it seeks to replace Joe Douglas, who was fired in November.
Grigson, Spielman, Mougey, Brown and Newmark joined Tampa Bay assistant general manager Mike Greenberg, Los Angeles Rams senior personnel executive Ray Farmer, Kansas City assistant general manager Mike Borgonzi, assistant general manager Philadelphia’s Alec Halaby, Senior Bowl executive director Jim Nagy, former Atlanta general manager Thomas Dimitroff, former Tennessee general manager Jon Robinson and ESPN analyst Louis Riddick.
New York is also searching for a head coach. The Jets have interviewed Steve Spagnuolo, Mike Locksley, Mike Vrabel, Ron Rivera, Rex Ryan, Matt Nagy and Aaron Glenn for that position. They also completed an interview Saturday with Darren Rizzi, who served as the Saints’ interim coach during the second half of the year.
Grigson, 52, is in his third season with the Vikings and helped build a roster that went 13-4 during the regular season and made the playoffs.
The former tight end and offensive lineman, a sixth-round draft pick by Cincinnati in 1995, was Indianapolis’ general manager for five years. He selected quarterback Andrew Luck with the first overall pick in the 2012 draft, his first with the Colts. Indianapolis went 49-31 in the regular season with Grigson in charge and made the playoffs three times.
He also worked in various roles on other NFL front offices, including the Rams, Eagles, Browns and Seahawks.
Spielman, a former NFL linebacker and leading tackler in Lions franchise history, has been special assistant to Detroit’s president, CEO and president since 2021. He has helped general manager Brad Holmes and coach Dan Campbell form a Lions team that won. a franchise-record 15 games this season and earned the No. 1 seed in the NFC.
Spielman, 59, is also the younger brother of former Dolphins and Vikings general manager Rick Spielman, who along with former Jets general manager Mike Tannenbaum, is helping identify and vet general manager candidates. and coach for New York and coordinate interviews. They are part of The 33rdTeam, a football media, analytics and consulting group founded by Tannenbaum, which was hired by Jets owner Woody Johnson in November to help New York in its searches.
Mougey, the Broncos’ assistant general manager under George Paton for three seasons, has held various positions in Denver’s front office since joining the team as a scouting intern in 2012. He was once a backup quarterback behind coach Vikings Kevin O’Connell at San Diego State Mougey He was Denver’s director of player personnel in 2021 before being promoted to assistant general manager.
Brown has been a top personnel executive for the Bengals since 2022. He also worked in the front offices of the Patriots and Eagles, and worked as an executive in Birmingham of the Alliance of American Football and St. Louis of the XFL.
Newmark is in his first season as Washington’s assistant general manager under Adam Peters and is responsible for the Commanders’ personnel and scouting departments. He worked two years as a personnel assistant with the Chargers before joining Detroit, where Newmark spent 26 years in various roles, including as senior director of player personnel.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
