Jets hire Nathaniel Hackett, seemingly exposing desire to land Aaron Rodgers

BOSTON -- There's been some smoke emanating out of New York about a potential run to acquire Aaron Rodgers from the Packers. Now, there just might be some fire.

The Jets hired Nathaniel Hackett as their new offensive coordinator on Thursday.

Hackett's most recent work was not particularly good, as he was a one-and-done head coach for the Denver Broncos. Hackett was in over his head from the get-go, and he needed to hire a game management coach early in the season to help run the team. After leading the Broncos -- who had Super Bowl aspirations in the preseason -- to a 4-11 record, Hackett was fired.

Clearly, Hackett was unfit to be a head coach, but it was believed that the Broncos hired him last year as a way to appeal to Aaron Rodgers. Ultimately, though, Rodgers stayed in Green Bay, leaving the Broncos with Hackett. The team then paid a massive haul to land Russell Wilson, and the end result was ugly.

Now, one might assume that the Jets are hoping to hire Hackett as a way to appeal to Rodgers forcing his way to New Jersey. The success of the offense and the team as a whole may hinge on that decision, as a Zach Wilson-Nathaniel Hackett pairing may be the stuff of Jets fans' nightmares.

But Rodgers is quite fond of Hackett from their three seasons together in Green Bay, as Rodgers made Pro Bowls in all three of Hackett's seasons running the offense, winning back-to-back MVP Awards in 2020 and 2021. Hackett's clearly proven capable of being an OC. Combine that with a potent defense and a head coach with some believability like Robert Saleh, and the Jets may end up being more appealing to the 39-year-old Rodgers than the Broncos were a year ago.

If Rodgers does manage to find his way onto the Jets roster, it will obviously have a profound impact on the AFC East, both for last year's first-place finishers in Buffalo and the third-place finishers in New England. It's certainly reasonable to believe the Jets would have and quite possibly should have won both games against the Patriots last year, but Wilson's wretched play sunk those chances. The Jets lost three straight one-possession games from Weeks 12-14, in a year when flipping those results would have made the difference between making the playoffs and finishing in the cellar of the division.

Quite clearly, a lot is at stake, and the Jets appear to be putting most of their eggs in the basket of hoping to land Aaron Rodgers.