Jets interview Saints' Darren Rizzi for their head coach vacancy and talk to 5 more for their GM job

The New York Jets interviewed New Orleans Saints interim coach Darren Rizzi on Saturday for their head coach vacancy.

The team also spoke to five more candidates for their general manager job, including Minnesota senior vice president of player personnel Ryan Grigson, Detroit executive Chris Spielman, Denver assistant GM Darren Mougey, Cincinnati executive Trey Brown and Washington assistant GM Lance Newmark.

Rizzi, who went 3-5 leading the Saints after Dennis Allen was fired, is the eighth known candidate to talk to the Jets about their coaching job. New York has also interviewed Steve Spagnuolo, Mike Locksley, Mike Vrabel, Ron Rivera, Rex Ryan, Matt Nagy and Aaron Glenn for the position.

The 54-year-old Rizzi, a New Jersey native who lives about 35 miles from the Jets' training facility in Florham Park, was the Saints' special teams coordinator from 2019-24 and was also the assistant head coach since 2022.

Rizzi previously served as Miami's special teams coordinator from 2010-18 after serving as an assistant with the Dolphins in 2009. He also had several college stops, including being the head coach at Rhode Island, his alma mater, and New Haven.

New York has interviewed 13 known candidates for the general manager job as it looks to replace Joe Douglas, who was fired in November.

Grigson, Spielman, Mougey, Brown and Newmark joined Tampa Bay assistant GM Mike Greenberg, Los Angeles Rams senior personnel executive Ray Farmer, Kansas City assistant GM Mike Borgonzi, Philadelphia assistant GM Alec Halaby, Senior Bowl executive director Jim Nagy, former Atlanta GM Thomas Dimitroff, former Tennessee GM Jon Robinson and ESPN analyst Louis Riddick.

The 52-year-old Grigson 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 of 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 was 49-31 in the regular season with Grigson in charge and made the playoffs three times.

He also worked in various roles in other NFL front offices, including the Rams, Eagles, Browns and Seahawks.

Spielman, a former NFL linebacker and the leading tackler in Lions franchise history, has been the special assistant to the president, CEO and chairperson for Detroit since 2021. He has helped general manager Brad Holmes and coach Dan Campbell put together a Lions squad that won a franchise-record 15 games this season and earned the No. 1 seed in the NFC.

The 59-year-old Spielman is also the younger brother of former Dolphins and Vikings GM Rick Spielman, who along with former Jets GM Mike Tannenbaum is helping identify and vet GM and coach candidates for New York and coordinate interviews. They're part of The 33rd Team — 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 GM under George Paton for three seasons, has held several positions in Denver's front office since joining the team as a scouting intern in 2012. Once a backup quarterback behind Vikings coach Kevin O'Connell at San Diego State, Mougey was Denver's director of player personnel in 2021 before being promoted to assistant GM.

Brown has been a senior personnel executive for the Bengals since 2022. He also has worked in the front offices of the Patriots and Eagles, and had stints as an executive with Birmingham of the Alliance of American Football and St. Louis of the XFL.

Newmark is in his first season as Washington's assistant GM under Adam Peters and is responsible for the Commanders' personnel and scouting departments. He worked two years as a staff assistant with the Chargers before joining Detroit, where Newmark worked 26 years in various roles, including as the senior director of player personnel.

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New Orleans Saints interim head coach Darren Rizzi watches from the sideline during the second half of an NFL football game against the Las Vegas Raiders, Friday, Nov. 29, 2024, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

New Orleans Saints interim head coach Darren Rizzi talks to officials during the second half of an NFL football game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is meeting with oil executives at the White House on Friday in hopes of securing $100 billion in investments to revive Venezuela’s ability to fully tap into its expansive reserves of petroleum — a plan that rides on their comfort in making commitments in a country plagued by instability, inflation and uncertainty.

Since the U.S. military raid to capture former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro on Saturday, Trump has quickly pivoted to portraying the move as a newfound economic opportunity for the U.S., seizing tankers carrying Venezuelan oil, saying the U.S. is taking over the sales of 30 million to 50 million barrels of previously sanctioned Venezuelan oil and will be controlling sales worldwide indefinitely.

On Friday, U.S. forces seized their fifth tanker over the past month that has been linked to Venezuelan oil. The action reflected the determination of the U.S. to fully control the exporting, refining and production of Venezuelan petroleum, a sign of the Trump administration's plans for ongoing involvement in the sector as it seeks commitments from private companies.

It's all part of a broader push by Trump to keep gasoline prices low. At a time when many Americans are concerned about affordability, the incursion in Venezuela melds Trump’s assertive use of presidential powers with an optical spectacle meant to convince Americans that he can bring down energy prices.

The meeting, set for 2:30 p.m. EST, will be open to the news media, according to an update to the president's daily schedule. “At least 100 Billion Dollars will be invested by BIG OIL, all of whom I will be meeting with today at The White House,” Trump said Friday in a pre-dawn social media post.

Trump is set to meet with executives from 17 oil companies, according to the White House. Among the companies attending are Chevron, which still operates in Venezuela, and ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips, which both had oil projects in the country that were lost as part of a 2007 nationalization of private businesses under Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chávez.

The president is meeting with a wide swath of domestic and international companies with interests ranging from construction to the commodity markets. Other companies slated to be at the meeting include Halliburton, Valero, Marathon, Shell, Singapore-based Trafigura, Italy-based Eni and Spain-based Repsol.

Large U.S. oil companies have so far largely refrained from affirming investments in Venezuela as contracts and guarantees need to be in place. Trump has suggested on social media that America would help to backstop any investments.

Venezuela’s oil production has slumped below one million barrels a day. Part of Trump's challenge to turn that around will be to convince oil companies that his administration has a stable relationship with Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodríguez, as well as protections for companies entering the market.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum are slated to attend the oil executives meeting, according to the White House.

Meanwhile, the United States and Venezuelan governments said Friday they were exploring the possibility of r estoring diplomatic relations between the two countries, and that a delegation from the Trump administration arrived to the South American nation on Friday.

The small team of U.S. diplomats and diplomatic security officials traveled to Venezuela to make a preliminary assessment about the potential re-opening of the U.S. Embassy in Caracas, the State Department said in a statement.

Trump also announced on Friday he’d meet with President Gustavo Petro in early February, but called on the Colombian leader to make quick progress on stemming flow of cocaine into the U.S.

Trump, following the ouster of Maduro, had made vague threats to take similar action against Petro. Trump abruptly changed his tone Wednesday about his Colombian counterpart after a friendly phone call in which he invited Petro to visit the White House.

President Donald Trump waves as he walks off stage after speaking to House Republican lawmakers during their annual policy retreat, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)