Denver Broncos assistant coach Jim Leonhard and longtime NFL assistant Wink Martindale were among eight candidates interviewed by the New York Jets for their vacant defensive coordinator position.
The Jets announced Friday they also completed interviews — all through video meetings — this week with Chris Harris, who served as New York's interim defensive coordinator after Steve Wilks was fired last month, Mathieu Araujo, Ephraim Banda, DeMarcus Covington, Daronte Jones and Jim O'Neil.
Jets coach Aaron Glenn will next shorten the list and meet with remaining candidates for in-person interviews.
New York's defense was one of the NFL's worst during a 3-14 season, Glenn's first as head coach. Wilks was fired after 14 games and Harris, the Jets' defensive backs coach and pass game coordinator, took over the play calling.
''Compatibility is just as important as coachability,'' Glenn said last week when asked about what he's looking for in a defensive coordinator. ''So, I want to make sure we see things the same way and I want to make sure that we can vibe as far as sitting down and talking about how we see football.''
Leonhard, a former safety who played for the Jets from 2009-11, has some familiarity with Glenn. In Leonhard's final season as a player in 2014 for Cleveland, Glenn served as the Browns' assistant defensive backs coach.
Leonhard began his coaching career as an assistant at Wisconsin, his alma mater, in 2016 before becoming the Badgers' defensive coordinator and later the interim head coach in 2022. After one year at Illinois, Leonhard joined Sean Payton's staff in Denver as the defensive backs coach and pass game coordinator in 2024 before adding assistant head coach to his duties this season.
Martindale was the defensive coordinator at Michigan the last two seasons after a two-year stint in the same role with the Giants. After several college stops to begin his coaching career, Martindale had NFL stints with the Raiders, Broncos and Ravens.
