It’s safe to say Nathaniel Hackett’s first head coaching job was a fiasco.
After taking the lead job with the Denver Broncos last season, Hackett failed to last the entire season as struggles with quarterback Russell Wilson, and the rest of the roster led to a 4-11 mark.
Less than a season later, Hackett has found a new home in New York with the Jets but the start has been anything but easy. Aaron Rodgers was lost for the season four plays into his debut with Gang Green, leaving Hackett to pick up the pieces and work around the struggles that come with playing a backup quarterback.
Sitting at a disappointing 1-3 to start the 2023 season doesn’t paint the whole picture for Hackett’s offense though. After three weeks of failing to record a 200-yard game, New York’s offense broke out against the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs Sunday night. A career night from backup quarterback Zach Wilson has led to a sliver of hope that the Jets offense can still turn their season around.
“There were some good things. I appreciated the entire offense as a group. We were better on third down but weren’t good enough across the board. We have to be better,” Hackett said following the team’s 23-20 loss to the Chiefs.
In order to do so though, the Jets will need to be even better than they were Sunday in Hackett’s return to Denver this week. The Broncos may have a struggling 1-3 mark, but they still have Russell Wilson in the fold and a change in Gang Green’s gameplan can put them right back where they were a couple of weeks ago.
Of course, much will be made about Hackett’s return even if he doesn’t want to talk too much about it.
When current Broncos’ head coach Sean Payton took the job in the offseason, he spent one training camp morning publicly criticizing the work Hackett’s staff did last season. The interview caught the NFL media like wildfire and had everyone circling their calendars for this coming week – a chance for the Jets’ offensive coordinator to show he wasn’t the sole reason for Denver’s struggles in 2022.
As much as the NFL wants to make this about Hackett trying to get back at his successor, the long-time offensive mid has made it clear the focus is on winning for the Jets.
“I think that for all of us, our sole focus is on winning a football game and we have to do our part in scoring more points…you can only control what you can control. What’s happened is in the past and we’re moving forward.”,” Hackett said Thursday.
A win in Denver would not only be a significant turn for the Jets’ offense, but it would set them up nicely for the later parts of the regular season. Early season struggles from teams like the Cincinnati Bengals, Los Angeles Chargers, and Jacksonville Jaguars have opened the door for other teams to hang close as the weather gets colder.
Finally having the offensive unit gain some confidence is just as important in October now as well. The next step for this group is to build that confidence into a cohesive plan that can make NFL defenses begin to fear the Jets in the long term. Rodgers may not be the quarterback, but the work being done currently can certainly help turn the tide for Gang Green.
“Experience is so critical when you’re calling plays…as a coach, we don’t get to play but you want to continue to put them in good spots,” Hackett explained.
Both the Broncos and Jets know they need to stop their current skid but the big storyline will be how Hackett handles his return to Denver, and how he reacts to the backlash that came from Payton’s comments. So far, it’s business as usual for New York’s offensive play-caller.
