NFL First Thoughts: New York Jets
Why the Rodgers-Hackett reunion might be in for a crash landing.
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Nathaniel Hackett is going to be the play caller for the Jets in 2023. That’s important because there’s a lot of comparisons and a lot of discussions around Aaron Rodgers, Hackett and the success they had together in Green Bay for three seasons. But that success came with Matt LaFleur as the play caller.
We have seen two examples of Hackett as a play caller in his career. He was calling plays in Jacksonville, before he went to the Packers; and he called the plays last year for the first chunk of the season with the Broncos. Both times Hackett has called plays were an abject disaster. The Broncos were a complete mess. A lot of that had to do with Russell Wilson. But Hackett didn’t help. He was in over his head.
At his previous stop in Jacksonville, Hackett was also a mess. The Jaguars were 26th in EPA/play and success rate. There’s a very high probability that Hackett is a really bad play caller. We know a couple things about his offense. First and foremost, it’s very difficult to learn. If you’ve ever watched a Hackett press conference, the first thing that jumps out is how personable he is. But even he admitted in a recent press conference that there will be a lot of carry over from the Packers’ scheme. If you look at all the Rodgers quotes when that scheme was introduced, and even into the second year, he was talking about how difficult it was to learn, how intricate it was, and there was a lot of comments from receivers in those years about just how demanding the offense was and how difficult it was at times to pick up everything at the line of scrimmage. Last week, Hackett said the offense was still a “long way” from being installed.
When you think about how this all comes together, there’s a lot of question marks with all these new pieces. The familiarity between Hackett and Rodgers, some theorize, will negate this. But it’s hard to imagine that will be the case. The one thing specifically that hasn’t matched up between Hackett and Rodgers is that Rodgers says he wants to do less at the line of scrimmage and wants to play quicker. He wants more tempo. Last year, the Packers with Rodgers were the second-slowest team in the league. Rodgers is saying he wants to do things different this year. Hackett hasn’t confirmed that. He’s still encouraging Rodgers to do everything he does at the line and manage the offense as he goes through. That’s the same thing Hackett had Wilson doing last year in Denver. So if you potentially have a disconnect between Rodgers wanting to do things one way, and Hackett doing them another (and calling plays), how does that get sorted out? Especially early in the season against a difficult schedule? The Jets last year, under the other LaFleur, were 5th in pace from snap to snap. They were a quick-moving offensive team. Where does the Jets this year fall within that? Are they closer to 32nd or are they closer to 5th? How will that settle? Ultimately, that will go a long way toward defining what this offense looks like.
Another question worth asking is can Garrett Wilson carry the offense from the receiver position? Outside of Wilson, you’re looking at a receiver group that’s aging. You think about those years in Green Bay when the system between Rodgers and LaFleur really worked, Davante Adams was unstoppable, and his chemistry with Rodgers disguised a lot of flaws in the system. Wilson last year with a variety of QBs had a breakout rookie season receiving wise, but he now has to step up into being an elite receiver, and that’s putting a lot of pressure on a second-year player. It can happen and it can work. But remember, it’s Hackett calling plays and that will be a big question until proven otherwise.