Nathaniel Hackett was the head coach of the worst offense in football last season, but he has had success in the past as an offensive coordinator, and his previous experience left Robert Saleh gushing over the Jets’ new hire.
“I feel like we hit a home run,” Saleh told reporters on Thursday. “He's had great success with all of the quarterbacks he's worked with.”
As for the potential connections that Hackett has to Aaron Rodgers, who continues to see his name alongside Gang Green as a potential big offseason trade, Saleh downplayed those, and said that he and Hackett, Rodgers’ former offensive coordinator, didn’t get into specific quarterback names during the interview process.
“No, I think it’s all surface-level stuff. It doesn’t matter what the connections are,” Saleh said. “Everyone's got a connection with everybody in this league. The most important thing was finding a guy who can continue to develop our young guys as a very high level, someone who’s done it before, a guy who has had success in this league with a variety of different quarterbacks.”
So, with Hackett’s history with Rodgers seemingly a non-factor (so they say publicly), it simply came down to resume, and Hackett’s jumped off the page for Saleh and the Jets, who now have a notable replacement for Mike LaFleur.
“After every interview, just went back to my list and review where we stood, and Nathaniel checked every box,” Saleh said. “His excitement to be here is reciprocated. This is a really, really good hire. Excited about the direction that we’ll be able to go.”
Follow Ryan Chichester on Twitter: @ryanchichester1
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