Another day, another candidate interviewed for the Jets’ vacant general manager position.
On Tuesday, Packers vice president of player personnel Jon-Eric Sullivan spoke to the team about the role. He is the 14th candidate to interview since Jets owner Woody Johnson fired Joe Douglas in November.
Sullivan is a popular name during this year’s hiring cycle. He is also scheduled to interview with the Raiders for their general manager position and met with the Titans on Monday regarding their vacancy.
Sullivan joined the Packers as an intern in 2003. During most of his time with the Packers, he worked alongside current Titans president of football operations Chad Brinker.
A year later, Sullivan became Green Bay’s football operations department as a national football scout.
During his time with the Packers, Sullivan served as a college scout covering the Central Plains (2008-11) and Southeast (2012-15) regions. After rising through the scouting ranks, Sullivan became the team’s vice president of player personnel in 2022. He is the son of long-time NFL and college receivers coach Jerry Sullivan.
The younger Sullivan has been a liaison between the Packers’ scouting department and general manager Brian Gutekunst. During Sullivan’s tenure with the team, Green Bay has had great success. With Aaron Rodgers under center, the Packers won the Super Bowl in 2010.
In recent years, Green Bay has made the playoffs five out of the last six years with Rodgers and now Jordan Love at quarterback. This season, the Packers placed seventh in the NFC after finishing 11-6. But they were defeated by the Eagles during the Wild-Card round on Sunday.
During Sullivan’s previous three seasons in Green Bay, the Packers went 28-23 and reached the postseason twice, including the divisional round in 2023 after defeating the Cowboys in the Wild-Card round.
The Jets general manager and coaching search has been thorough. They are still in Round 1 of the searches despite having a head start on teams after firing both their general manager and head coach (Robert Saleh) amidst a 5-12 season.
A week after Johnson fired Douglas, he hired The 33rd Team, led by former Jets general manager Mike Tannenbaum, to identify candidates and coordinate interviews.
Thomas Dimitroff, Jon Robinson, Jim Nagy, Louis Riddick, Alec Halaby, Mike Borgonzi, Ray Farmer, Mike Greenberg, Darren Mougey, Lance Newmark, Trey Brown, Chris Spielman, Ryan Grigson have interviewed for the Jets GM job. Nine candidates have interviewed for the Jets coaching vacancy:
Ron Rivera, Mike Vrabel, Rex Ryan, Matt Nagy, Aaron Glenn, Mike Locksley, Steve Spagnuolo, Darren Rizzi, and Jeff Ulbrich. Vrabel was hired as the coach of the Patriots on Jan. 12.