Coming off a five year run with the Jacksonville Jaguars, Nathaniel Hackett is going to be Offensive Coordinator next season. Hackett started in Jacksonville with the Jaguars as a quarterbacks coach and was moved to Offensive Coordinator in 2016. New head coach Matt LaFleur has previously indicated that he intends to call his own offensive plays but Hackett will offer offer his insight into play design. Prior to the Jaguars, Hackett worked with the Buffalo Bills. This will be the first time LaFleur and Hackett have worked together.
Former #Jaguars OC Nathaniel Hackett is headed to Green Bay, as the #Packers are hiring him as their new offensive coordinator, source said. He’ll absolutely challenge and engage Aaron Rodgers.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 14, 2019
Before getting too worried with Hackett’s performance in Jacksonville, keep in mind that he was working with Blake Bortles and a litany of injuries(which should make him feel right at home in Green Bay). Now he will have Aaron Rodgers to work with….and a litany of injuries.
New #Packers OC Nathaniel Hackett was known as the "mad scientist" earlier in his career. Matt LaFleur is hoping Hackett can fit that bill in Green Bay: https://t.co/449p4RJh6t
— Michael Cohen (@Michael_Cohen13) January 15, 2019
Were those,….hamstring injuries he worked with,..maybe???
Seriously, Hackett did put up some decent numbers for his creds as an OC in Jax. Despite the record of wins and losses, the stats showed them putting up some results in the statistical columns. We’ll see.
Now is it possible the with the designs of LaFleur and Hackett influencing the offense we’ll be seeing a good bit more running? A little more RB in play designs? Maybe somewhere in the draft/FA they go for a RB who can catch and run a little more (like a Christian McCaffrey type).
What’s Aaron gonna think of this?
I love the ill-informed “run more” comments, always a great way to identify intelligence in the football community.
So Rodgers is going to be paid $20 million next season and $103 million guaranteed overall and the organization is paying him that to……hand the football off? Yeah okay.
You do know Rodgers wasn’t even in the top 3 for most attempts this past season, he was behind Roethlisberger (by almost 80 attempts), Andrew Luck, Matt Ryan, Kirk Cousins while even Case Keenum and Rodgers were only separated by 11 attempts. Get with modern NFL offensive trends, it’s a passing league and you don’t need to run the football to win games and be good. The bottom 11 teams in the NFL this year in terms of rushing % were the Kansas City, Philadelphia, Tampa Bay, Indianapolis, and Pitt (they had the most efficient back in football too) and guess what, Kansas City led the NFL in total offense while Pittsburgh was #4, Indianapolis was #7, and Tampa Bay was #3. Teams that ran the football the most; Seattle, Buffalo, Tennessee, and Houston — none of those teams were anywhere near the top 13 offenses in the league and they all sucked.
It’s not about running more it’s about the efficiency of the plays being drawn up, specifically the passing plays. Count all the broken plays/throw-aways Rodgers had this last year and total those up and then get back to me about how many attempts he ACTUALLY had. You want to involve Aaron Jones more in the passing game — I’ll buy that. But running more and piling on 20+ carries per/game for a guy who is barely 5’10 and has a laundry list of injuries already, no way.
Run better plays, a better scheme, more air yards, completions, more efficiency in the passing game — you need to score 30+ points per/game today in the NFL if you want to play for a Super Bowl. You simply cannot argue that point, it’s a fact. Rodgers is going to be the guy who gets you there —- not Aaron Jones and Jamal Williams.
Tell that to the Rams, Saints, Patriots, and Chiefs last weekend, all four averaged 135 yards more than their opponents. When you can rush as well as you pass, you can do whatever you want.
Tell that to the Rams, Saints, Patriots, and Chiefs last weekend, all four averaged 135 yards more than their opponents. When you can rush as well as you pass, you can do whatever you want.
If Rodgers continues to miss open receivers and holds the ball too long nothing will change. He holds the ball so he can throw long which he’s now missing more often than not. His low interception rate is directly the result of not throwing into a tight window anymore. Unless he starts playing like he was in 2011, he’s being way overpaid!!! I would welcome more running plays in a scheme that works to open up the passing game. But, if Rodgers won’t throw short into tight windows to move the chains and actually hit the deep throw when it’s there, the Packers won’t go anywhere in the post season.
Yea, I remember in August 2013 when Hackett was OC of the Bills & he said he intends to give the football to C.J. Spiller all the time… he said, “We’re going to give him the ball until he throws up. So he’s either got to tap out or throw up on the field. Let’s just put it that way.” Spiller was a non factor for Buffalo that season…
Great! we’re getting an OC that failed in both Buffalo & Jacksonville. Who are we hiring next? Doogie Houser M.D.??? Billy Heywood??? Henry Rowengartner???
Oh… I see. We’re going to pick-up LeVeon Bell or Kareem Hunt in free agency… Well played Guty
Well, Hackett is not going to be calling plays, LaFleur already mentioned that. He is basically just doing grunt work for the Head coach, watching film, game planning, communication with the offense to the Head Coach. Basically what Philbin did for years.
I feel ya… I’m struggling to find anything on this guy’s resume’ that makes me think ‘Yeah! We gotta have that!’ Quite the opposite, unfortunately.
Something I read elsewhere made it sound like they’re bringing in some assistants from Miami – yet another franchise that I wouldn’t be in a hurry to emulate.
I sincerely hope that a year from now, someone can dig up skeptical posts like mine and others and say “See, you guys really knew nothing – this guy and the staff he assembled worked out great.” But right now, none of these moves are inspiring a lot of confidence.
I think Packer fans were expecting coaches with a track record to be hired. All we heard was ..we have to find someone strong enough to control Rodgers…blah blah blah. Just as i said back in 2015, Rodgers didn’t just forget how to play QB. A college receiver (or 2) can’t be expected to seamlessly come into the NFL and adjust, learn a new offense. and be relied upon to produce consistently after one training camp, they do, and will make mistakes. Then get rid of a “go to” veteran receiver, add in a high cost slow tight end, and a leaking O line, and you got what you got. Not exactly the formula for success.
We’ve kind of covered LaFleur who has had some spot success in the league.
As far as Hackett (i refuse to type/say his first name). LaFleur couldn’t have hired someone further off the radar. The best you can say is he also had some spot success. He had a 10 win season and made it to the AFCCG in 2017. They had the 5th ranked offense with a respectable 26 PPG, coupled with a defense that gave up an outstanding 16.8 PPG. I’m calling it lightning in a bottle for a team like Jacksonville.
As far as if they want to run the ball, when and what they said about it? No one should care. If you have EJ Manuel for a QB, and you have running backs Fred Jackson and CJ Spiller, i’m gonna run the ball also.
So at the end of the day, it is what it is, we can’t do a damn thing about. What someone said 5 years ago under different circumstances, i just don’t care. They have Rodgers now, Adams, and maybe Gute learned something after ditching a go to guy, and putting 2 rookies and a has been slow tight end on the field.
If we’re looking for an upside immediately. I think you have a couple guys who are hungry, want to make a name for themselves, and from what i can see bring some idea’s and energy to the sideline.
Maybe i’m non-chalant about it because my expectations aren’t very high, I made my peace with reality while Murphy is still pretending to know what he is doing.
awesome post as usual, pf4l
Is it really an indictment of the man when he was an OC in the AFC? The Bills and Jags? There’s a couple of perennial juggernauts! The AFC has always seemed like the JV with 3-4 teams routinely in the hunt and mostly because they have competent QBs and coaching. How would New England fare if they were in the NFC? They damn sure wouldn’t be gifted 5-6 wins when the schedule comes out due to shitty division rivals year after year.
We all wanted change. Now let’s second guess those changes. If the team stinks, we are that much closer to Murphy being replaced. Eventually. If someone forces him to resign. Or fires him. Upside?
I’m afraid that when Rodgers was talking about having an offense that gets guys open he wasn’t talking about the offenses of LaFleur, McVay, or Hackett. He was talking about the Patriots offense with its rub routes and pick plays. I’m not sure he’ll buy into these offenses.
I’m sure he’d buy into any offense that offered him open receivers. Must be a luxury to have receivers who can get open in under 2.5 seconds. I haven’t seen much of that in Green Bay.