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.
Araujo spent the last four seasons with the Dolphins, first as an assistant defensive backs coach for Mike McDaniel and then as the cornerbacks coach.
Banda coached the Browns’ safeties the last three seasons under Kevin Stefanski after several college stops, including Texas, Mississippi State, Miami and Utah State.
Covington joined the Packers this season as their defensive line coach and run game coordinator after spending eight seasons with the Patriots, including last season as the defensive coordinator.
Jones has spent the last five seasons with the Vikings as the defensive backs coach and also served as the pass game coordinator the last three. He has also had NFL coaching stints with the Dolphins and Bengals.
O’Neil has been with the Lions the past two years, including the 2024 season when Glenn was the defensive coordinator in Detroit. He's a defensive assistant who also coaches the Lions' safeties. He was a defensive quality control coach for the Jets in 2009 and their assistant defensive backs coach from 2010-12. O'Neil also has spent time with the Bills, Browns, 49ers and Raiders.
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FILE - New York Giants defensive coordinator Don "Wink" Martindale during an NFL football game against the Philadelphia Eagles, in Philadelphia, Dec. 25, 2023. (AP Photo/Rich Schultz, File)
FILE - Wisconsin interim head coach Jim Leonhard leads warmups before playing against Nebraska in an NCAA college football game in Lincoln, Neb., Nov. 19, 2022. (AP Photo/Rebecca S. Gratz)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump this week quietly appointed four new members to the Commission of Fine Arts, one of two federal panels reviewing his plan to build a White House ballroom.
The Republican president has talked about building a White House ballroom for years, and completing the proposed 90,000-square-foot (8,400-square-meter) addition would not only forever alter the public face of the mansion but would stand for decades as a lasting legacy to Trump.
One of new members is James McCrery, an architect who had led the now $400 million ballroom project until Trump replaced him late last year. The White House has said the project would be financed with private donations — including from Trump himself — and the East Wing has already been demolished to make space for the ballroom.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation has sued in federal court to halt construction until the fine arts panel and a second federal commission give their approval. The four new members were revealed in court papers filed Thursday by a White House official as part of that lawsuit. The White House did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comment.
The new appointments would give the Commission of Fine Arts a quorum, or enough members to conduct business at a meeting scheduled for Jan. 22, where consideration of what is being called the East Wing Modernization project is on the agenda. The panel had been scheduled to meet this past week, but could not due to the lack of new members.
The commission did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
The panel normally has seven members but has been unable to meet for months. Trump dismissed six commissioners last fall after the East Wing was torn down. A seventh commissioner, who was the panel’s chair, had earlier resigned after Trump took office last year because their term had expired.
The White House is tentatively scheduled to formally present the project to the commission on Feb. 19 and March 19, at which time the panel could complete its review, Heather Martin, a deputy assistant to the president, said in the court papers.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation has accused the Trump administration of violating federal laws by starting the project before submitting it for independent reviews by the commissions and Congress, as well as the public.
Aside from architect McCrery, who had served on the commission as a Trump appointee from 2019-2024, the commission will include Mary Anne Carter of Tennessee; Roger Kimball of Connecticut; and Matthew Taylor of Washington, D.C.
Carter is chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, a position she also held during Trump’s first term. She is a former staffer to Rick Scott, a former governor of Florida and current U.S. senator from the state. Kimball is an art critic and conservative commentator.
The National Capital Planning Commission, the second federal panel with oversight of construction on federal land, including the White House grounds, heard an initial presentation about the ballroom at its meeting on Jan. 8.
FILE - President Donald Trump, with architect James McCrery, left, surveys the grounds from the roof above the Colonnade that goes to the West Wing of the White House, Aug. 5, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
Marine One helicopter is seen on the South Lawn of the White House to transport President Donald Trump to nearby Andrews Air Force Base, as work continues on the construction of the ballroom at the White House, Tuesday, Jan., 13, 2026, in Washington, where the East Wing once stood. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
