AFC East

The New York Jets reportedly have a new interview lined up for their vacant general manager position.

Per ESPN's Jeremy Fowler, Minnesota Vikings vice president of player personnel Ryan Grigson is scheduled to interview for the position over the weekend.

Grigson has been an NFL executive for more than 20 years, working his way up from a regional scout to becoming the Philadelphia Eagles director of player personnel in 2010. From there, he served as the Indianapolis Colts general manager from 2012 to 2016.

Under Grigson, the Colts won two division titles, reached the playoffs three times and went to the AFC Championship in 2014. He was let go after Indianapolis had back-to-back 8-8 seasons in 2015 and 2016.

Grigson worked various roles for the Cleveland Browns and Seattle Seahawks before landing his current job with the Vikings in 2022.

The Athletic's Dianna Russini reported earlier this week that the Jets had requested an interview with Grigson as the Vikings prepare for their wild-card matchup against the Los Angeles Rams.

Zach Rosenblatt of The Athletic reported Tuesday that New York had completed interviews with former Atlanta Falcons general manager Thomas Dimitroff, former Tennessee Titans general manager Jon Robinson, ESPN analyst Louis Riddick and Senior Bowl executive Jim Nagy.

Rosenblatt also noted the Jets have requested an interview with Tampa Bay Buccaneers assistant general manager Mike Greenberg.

Additionally, ESPN's Adam Schefter reported on Monday the Jets have requested to interview Kansas City Chiefs assistant general manager Mike Borgonzi and Los Angeles Rams senior personnel executive Ray Farmer. NFL Network's Tom Pelissero reported the Jets have requested an interview with Cincinnati Bengals senior personnel executive Trey Brown.

New York has a long offseason ahead of it as it looks to replace its head coach and general manager, but the Jets are seemingly hitting the ground running with a laundry list of candidates for both positions.

One of the most popular candidates in this year's coaching cycle got another interview request on Wednesday.

Per Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer, the New England Patriots requested to interview Detroit Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn for their vacant head coaching position. With New England's request, Glenn has now received an interview request from all six teams without a head coach.

Glenn, a three-time Pro Bowler during his playing days, started his coaching career as an assistant defensive backs coach for the Cleveland Browns in 2014. After two seasons in Cleveland, he served as the defensive backs coach for the New Orleans Saints from 2016 to 2020.

His success with the Saints led to his first defensive coordinator job for the Lions in 2021. With Glenn leading the defense, the Lions went from winning just three games in his first season at the helm to winning 15 games this season as Detroit was tied for the best record in the league and earned the top seed in the NFC.

This season, the Lions gave up just 20.1 points per game, the seventh-best mark in the league, despite being without a number of key starters, including star defensive end Aidan Hutchinson who played just five games.

Amid Glenn's popularity, Lions head coach Dan Campbell raved about his defensive coordinator.

"He's as good of a coach as you're going to find," Campbell said Tuesday, per the Detroit Free Press' Rainer Sabin. "He's an even better human being. If nobody wants him, I'll take him again, I can tell you that right now. But the thought of going through another cycle and he's not somebody's head coach, is ridiculous."

With the Lions getting a playoff bye this week, Glenn will start interviewing with teams virtually. NFL Network's Ian Rapoport reported that Glenn has interviews with the New York Jets, New Orleans Saints, Chicago Bears and Jacksonville Jaguars scheduled between Thursday and Sunday.

After the interviews, Glenn will shift his focus back to the Lions, who are looking to cap off their tremendous season with a Super Bowl.

Josh Allen is doing his best to keep teams in need of a head coach away from offensive coordinator Joe Brady.

The Buffalo Bills quarterback joked that Brady wouldn't make a good head coach amid interest from teams around the league.

"Nothing," Allen told reporters when asked what Brady brought to the offense in 2024. "Teams should stay away from him."

Brady has emerged as a candidate for several vacant head coaching jobs, including the New York Jets and Jacksonville Jaguars.

The interest Brady is drawing makes sense given the success he and the Bills have had this season. In his first year as offensive coordinator, Brady has orchestrated an offense that scored the second-most points per game (30.9).

Under Brady's guidance, Allen has become a favorite to win MVP with a season that saw him throw for 3,731 yards, 28 touchdowns and just six interceptions. Allen also had 531 rushing yards and 12 touchdowns on the ground.

While Allen would prefer Brady stick around after this season, there's a good chance he'll end up getting his first head coaching gig this offseason.

Until then, he'll look to lead the Bills to a Super Bowl after a tremendous regular season. Buffalo will begin its quest toward a championship on Sunday when it faces the Denver Broncos.

While veteran quarterback Aaron Rodgers' future with the New York Jets remains unclear, it sounds like the team won't be bringing in one of his former coaches this offseason.

The Athletic's Dianna Russini reported on Wednesday that the Jets have not requested to speak with Dallas Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy, whose contract expired at the end of the 2024 season. McCarthy and Rodgers spent 13 years together when McCarthy was head coach of the Green Bay Packers from 2006 to 2018.

Even if the Jets had requested to speak with McCarthy, it appears that they wouldn't have had the opportunity to do so anyway. ESPN's Adam Schefter reported that the Cowboys denied a request from the Chicago Bears to interview him as part of their head coaching search.

While McCarthy's contract officially expired on Wednesday, Dallas still holds exclusive negotiating rights through Jan. 14. If the two sides are unable to reach an agreement, McCarthy would be free to pursue any job opening he pleases during this offseason's hiring cycle.

The 2024 season didn't turn out the way the Cowboys had hoped, as they finished with a 7-10 record and failed to make the playoffs. Dallas had a tough start to the season before losing star quarterback Dak Prescott to season-ending hamstring surgery after eight games.

Still, McCarthy made it clear that his preference would be to continue on with the Cowboys, telling reporters after the regular-season finale on Sunday that he "absolutely" wants to return in 2025.

"I have a lot of confidence in myself as a head coach. ... I'm definitely in position with Jerry [Jones] to move the program forward. There's no question about that in mind," McCarthy said.

Despite not pursuing McCarthy, the Jets are not short on options in their search for a new head coach. New York has already begun holding interviews and has put in an extensive list of interview requests since Monday.

The Jerod Mayo era with the New England Patriots was much shorter than anyone anticipated when he was hired last year as head coach, but people within the organization aren't surprised he lasted only one season on the job.

In a story detailing Mayo's rapid downfall by The Athletic's Chad Graff, the most common point that came up was he felt in over his head with the job.

Graff explained that Mayo seemed to be working so hard to differentiate himself and his style of coaching from Bill Belichick that it backfired on him.

"But in describing how and why things went wrong for Mayo and the Patriots, team sources pointed to a few things. Mayo, they felt, tried too hard to be 180 degrees different from Belichick, then struggled to apply and uphold discipline after positioning himself as a players' coach."

One story relayed to Graff by a source with the Patriots involved Mayo taking the unusual step of leaving the area on the team plane where coaches sit to join the players for a game of cards after their Week 15 loss to the Arizona Cardinals.

"Look, there are a lot of ways to do the job," the team source who was on the plane said. "It's not that Jerod's was definitely wrong. But I can't say I've seen that before."

A Patriots player did point out to Graff that Mayo's decision to play cards with the players would have been spun as a positive if they were winning games.

Another problem that was highlighted by Graff is that Mayo had no experience in the NFL outside of working with the Patriots, both as a player and coach, so he struggled to fill out his coaching staff because he didn't have many connections around the league:

"Mayo's lack of connections meant he had to lean on Wolf and others in the front office to fill out his staff. When it was completed, the Patriots had a first-time front-office leader (Wolf), a first-time head coach (Mayo), a first-time defensive coordinator (Covington), a first-time offensive play caller (Van Pelt), a first-time special teams coordinator (Jeremy Springer), a first-time offensive line coach (Scott Peters), a first-time wide receivers coach (Tyler Hughes) and a first-time linebackers coach (Dont'a Hightower). It's not that any one of them was a bad hire individually but that all of them together led to too many people figuring out their jobs on the fly."

There was also a lack of consistency in terms of player discipline and how it was enforced. After Rhamondre Stevenson lost a fumble in the fourth quarter that led to a Buffalo Bills touchdown in the Patriots' 24-21 loss in Week 16, Mayo said leading up to the next game against the Los Angeles Chargers that the veteran running back would play but not start.

Stevenson wound up getting the start against the Chargers, but he got two carries and played 24 out of 53 possible offensive snaps.

"I still don't know what happened with that," a Patriots source told Graff about the Stevenson situation. "Honestly, Jerod is a good guy. I just don't think he was ready for all the big decisions and discipline and focus the job takes."

Graff also reported Mayo did not offer former Patriots defensive assistant Steve Belichick "the chance to continue calling plays" and instead presented him with an opportunity to continue as a member of his staff in a "lesser role." Belichick ultimately departed for the University of Washington.

Patriots owner Robert Kraft did try to take some of the heat off Mayo after he fired him, telling reporters on Monday that he put him in an "untenable situation" and "needed more time" before becoming an NFL head coach.

Robert Kraft on the decision to move on from Head Coach Jerod Mayo. pic.twitter.com/zTADw2lrui

— New England Patriots (@Patriots) January 6, 2025

The Patriots wound up finishing this season with a 4-13 record. It's the same mark they had in Belichick's final season in 2023, but there were indications throughout this year that Mayo didn't seem fully prepared for all that being a head coach entails.

That isn't to suggest it's all Mayo's fault. Expectations were low for the Patriots coming into this season because the roster still lacks elite talent at key positions on both sides of the ball.

Mayo had only five seasons of coaching experience in the NFL prior to being hired by the Patriots and never worked as a coordinator. He was the inside linebackers coach on Belichick's staff from 2019 to '23.

Things were set up for Mayo to have a rough debut season as Patriots head coach. He just didn't help matters by not filling out his staff with proven coaches, nor was there any indication over the course of the season that he was getting better at managing all of the things a head coach has to handle.

The end result is the Patriots are searching for a head coach for the second straight offseason after having Belichick running the ship for 24 seasons.

Miami Dolphins general manager Chris Grier believes two of his players were Pro Bowl snubs this year.

Grier had choice words about the decision to leave defensive lineman Zach Sieler and running back De'Von Achane off the Pro Bowl roster while also recognizing that his team's poor record had something to do with the snub.

"To me, the fact that Zach Sieler and Achane didn't get Pro Bowl stuff, to me it's bulls--t," Grier told reporters. "But at the end of the day, when you don't win games, it's a team game. Unfortunately that happens. And good people and good players that do things the right way get left behind because of it. And it's our goal, between Mike and I, to make sure that doesn't happen to our players again."

Achane had a career year in his second season, totaling 907 rushing yards, 592 receiving yards and 12 touchdowns, collecting the fourth-most yards from scrimmage among AFC players.

Sieler also had an outstanding season, racking up 55 tackles, 10 sacks, a forced fumble, an interception and 12.5 stuffs. Sieler had similar numbers a year ago and also wasn't named a Pro Bowler.

Had the Dolphins put together a better season, Achane and Sieler probably would have had a better chance of making a Pro Bowl roster. But Miami finished 8-9 and missed the playoffs, and teams with better records got the edge when it came to Pro Bowl selections.

The New England Patriots reportedly "plan" on interviewing Mike Vrabel for their head-coaching vacancy on Thursday, according to NFL Network's Ian Rapoport, and he's "viewed as a frontrunner heading into the interview."

Vrabel, 49, has obvious ties to the organization after playing linebacker for the team between the 2001-08 seasons. He was a three-time champion in New England, both a Pro Bowler and first-team All-Pro selection in 2007 and is in the organization's Hall of Fame.

Vrabel spent the 2024 season as a consultant for the Cleveland Browns after cutting ties with the Tennessee Titans following the 2023 season. He spent six seasons as Tennessee's head coach, going 54-45 in the role with three playoff appearances, though the Titans had losing records in each of his last two seasons.

Prior to serving as Tennessee's head coach, he was a linebackers coach (2011) and defensive line coach (2012-13) for the Ohio State Buckeyes and a linebackers coach for the Houston Texans (2014-17).

The Patriots, meanwhile, have already interviewed former Houston Texans offensive coordinator Pep Hamilton and former Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich, and have requested to interview current Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson (who like Vrabel is considered one of the hottest names on the coaching market).

The Patriots are an intriguing opening on several fronts. While the team has a clear talent deficiency, rookie quarterback Drake Maye showed flashes of stardom in 2024 despite a porous offensive line and a general lack of playmakers around him.

The Patriots also have the No. 4 overall pick in the 2025 NFL draft and will be in a position to select one of the top non-quarterbacks on the board, with players like two-way star Travis Hunter, edge-rusher Abdul Carter, offensive lineman Kelvin Banks Jr. and wideout Tetairoa McMillan among the interesting options for them to consider.

Protecting Maye should be a top priority, so Banks would make a lot of sense, though Hunter would be tough to pass on if he falls to No. 4.

Darren Rizzi could be in line for a head coaching gig following his stint as interim head coach of the New Orleans Saints.

Per Fox Sports' Jordan Schultz, the New York Jets have requested to interview Rizzi for their vacant head coach position. According to Schultz, Rizzi is also expected to interview for the Saints head coaching job.

Rizzi has coached at the NFL level since 2009, serving various roles for the Miami Dolphins from 2009 to 2018. He was hired as the Saints' special teams coordinator in 2019 and held that position until 2022 when he took on assistant head coaching duties as well.

New Orleans fired head coach Dennis Allen in November after the Saints lost their seventh consecutive game, dropping to 2-7 on the year. They promoted Rizzi to interim head coach for the remainder of the year, and he went 3-5 in the final eight games as New Orleans finished 5-12, its worst record since 2005.

The Jets, who fired head coach Robert Saleh in October after just five games, have already made progress in their coaching search, interviewing or requesting to interview a number of candidates.

The team completed an interview with former head coach Rex Ryan on Tuesday and interviewed Mike Vrabel for the position last week. New York also interviewed former Washington Commanders and Carolina Panthers coach Ron Rivera last Thursday.

Whoever ends up with the job in New York will have a tall task ahead of them. The Jets made it 15 consecutive seasons without a playoff appearance this year and are heading into an offseason that could see them part ways with quarterback Aaron Rodgers and potentially other key players. All that sets up plenty of work for the next leader of the team.

Count Brian Flores among those potentially willing to become the next head coach of the New England Patriots.

The Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator was asked if he had interest in the position ahead of this weekend's Wild Card Round matchup against the Los Angeles Rams and told reporters, "I would say yes," though he added, "it's not up to me."

The Patriots have already begun their coaching search in earnest, with a number of big names either agreeing to interviews or with New England putting forward requests to interview them:

That’s two head coaching interviews today for the #Patriots: Pep Hamilton and Byron Leftwich.

The only current NFL assistant coach they’re known to have requested is #Lions OC Ben Johnson, while Mike Vrabel is free to interview anytime … https://t.co/H7j7B5eoPy

— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) January 7, 2025

The #Jaguars have requested permission to speak with #Lions OC Ben Johnson, source said. Add them to #Patriots and #Bears. He has a window from Thursday to Saturday, all virtual.

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 7, 2025

There is also the expectation that Mike Vrabel—who spent eight seasons with the Patriots as a player—will be among the top candidates, if not the favorite for the gig:

While many assume New England will be his eventual landing spot, Mike Vrabel will go through the process. Jets first, now #Bears tomorrow. https://t.co/Z8XkGzBD84

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 7, 2025

As for Flores, the 43-year-old spent three seasons as the head coach of the Miami Dolphins between 2019-21, going 24-25, though he never led the organization to the playoffs.

He's had more success as a defensive coordinator for the Vikings in the past two seasons and the team finished fifth in the NFL in points allowed (19.5 PPG) in 2024.

Brian Flores took questions about the potential of interviewing to be a head coach. Very thoughtful in every response.

He said he plans on taking every interview at his disposal. He also made it clear that it would have to be the right fit for him to leave the Vikings.

— Dane Mizutani (@DaneMizutani) January 7, 2025

The Patriots, meanwhile, have not recovered from the breakup of the Tom Brady and Bill Belichick partnership back in 2020. Since then, the team is 33-51, and in Jerod Mayo's lone year at the helm the Pats went just 4-13. In his defense, the team also had an identical record in Belichick's final season in charge.

The team is still recovering from the questionable personnel decisions in the later years of the Belichick era, though one of the appealing aspects of New England's coaching vacancy is the presence of rookie quarterback Drake Maye. He impressed in 2024 (2,276 yards, 15 touchdowns 10 interceptions, 66.6 completion percentage, 421 rushing yards, two rushing touchdowns) despite a lack of impactful weapons around him.

The Patriots have to completely retool their roster, though it appears they have their quarterback. Flores, or any other coaching candidate, will have to accept that New England is facing a major talent deficiency and requires a complete rebuild.

The New York Jets reportedly chose not to submit an interview request for Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson in their search for a new head coach, and it's reportedly because they don't believe he's the right man for the job.

Brian Costello of the New York Post reported that the Jets "do not feel that Johnson would be a fit for them so they are not requesting an interview, according to sources."

The Athletic's Dianna Russini reported on Monday that the Jets weren't expected to put in an interview request for Johnson. Connor Hughes of SNY reported that he's heard that Johnson "does not have interest in the Jets vacancy, and has made that known," though he also added that the Jets had "some questions on how he'd handle" being in the New York market.

While the Jets aren't pursuing Johnson, he's still one of the most coveted coaching candidates this hiring cycle. Under his direction, the Lions led the NFL with 33.2 points per game and ranked second with 409.5 total yards per game on their way to going 15-2 and clinching their second straight NFC North title as well as the No. 1 seed in the NFC.

Despite removing Johnson from its crop of potential candidates, New York still has a lengthy list of pursuits this offseason. The team already completed interviews with veteran coaches Mike Vrabel and Ron Rivera last week and also met with former Jets head coach Rex Ryan on Tuesday.

New York went 5-12 this season after firing head coach Robert Saleh and general manager Joe Douglas midway through the campaign. The Jets are hoping to find the right candidates to help them end their 14-year playoff drought, but it looks like Johnson isn't an option.