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The Athletic continues to crank out Jets scoops.
They are on fire.
Zack Rosenblatt announced on Twitter: “Nathaniel Hackett will return as the #Jets offensive coordinator in 2024, though Robert Saleh has explored adding to the offensive staff and creating a more collaborative play-calling process that would reduce Hackett’s role, per sources.”
I was listening to a sports show on SiriusXM, and kept hearing during the sports news updates, “Nathaniel Hackett will return as Jets offensive coordinator.”
Each time I heard it, I was wondering where this came from.
I never thought he was going anywhere. Did you? They would fire Aaron Rodgers hand-picked offensive coordinator now?
So not sure why this was news this week.
But I want to dive into the other part of the tweet about the more collaborative playing-calling process.
There is no doubt this is going to happen, but it has very little to do with other assistant coaches.
It has everything thing to do with Rodgers returning. This is something we wrote in Jets Confidential last spring:
(Start of excerpt) The Jets have two offensive coordinators – the man with the title, Nathaniel Hackett, and QB Aaron Rodgers. Hackett calls the play from the sideline (or booth) and Rodgers goes  to the line and works his mental magic.
He’s the king of audibles, and few do it better. He’s a master a diagnosing what a defense is in once he gets to the line, and often checks to a different play based on what his     sophisticated eyes tell him.
“He is a maestro at the line. Former NFL center Shaun O’Hara, who knows a thing or two about line calls, recently provided some good insight on Rodgers’ work at the line.
“Rodgers is going to have the freedom and ability to just change things and do what he wants to do at the line of scrimmage, put [the Jets offense] in the best position possible,” O’Hara said on NFL Network.
Rodgers, who has a very high football IQ, is very good at not only reading defenses after the snap, but before it as well.
“There are times you come up to the line and you see things they are in on defense you were not expecting and you’ve got to be able to change gears right way, you’ve got to be able to shift and transition,” O’Hara said. “Aaron has done it a lot in his career.”
And done it well.
“Think about how many times you’ve seen him walk up to the line and take a quick snap and boom, throw the ball when it looks like it’s supported to be a run play,” O’Hara said. “He does this all the time.
If you want to get the best version of Rodgers, you need to let him go to the line and do his thing.
“He’s got to have those liberties in order to let him take advantage of what the defense is giving him,” O’Hara said. This guy makes everybody better at the line of scrimmage. So many of these throws are on run plays where he just sees one-on-one, and you know what, I’m throw to the X (receiver) now.” (end of excerpt)
So yes, it will be more collaborative, but not with somebody else aside from Hackett making play calls, but with Rodgers changing things on the line with regularity.
February 2, 2024
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