For Jets offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett, 2023 wasn’t the comeback story he had envisioned after getting fired after one season as the head coach of the Denver Broncos. He was mocked by new Broncos head coach Sean Payton for how mismanaged the team was the previous season under Hackett.

For all the buildup and all the expectations the Jets had in 2023, it all came crushing down four offensive plays into the season when Aaron Rodgers tore his Achilles. Once Rodgers went down, all eyes turned to Nathaniel Hackett to generate some offense with Zach Wilson at the helm. And boy, did he fail.

The Jets ranked near the bottom in almost ever single important metric and statistic on the offensive side of the ball, and Hackett came out looking like someone who forgot how to run an offense that didn’t have a future Hall of Famer at the helm.

Despite the terrible season, Robert Saleh, Joe Douglas and Woody Johnson decided to retain Nathaniel Hackett as offensive coordinator feeling that he was brought in to work with Rodgers, and he hasn’t really gotten a chance to do that.

But reports began to surface that the Jets were in the market to bring in another offensive coach in an undefined role, except to say that it would be above Hackett. Hackett would still retain the “coordinator role” but this other coach would oversee him. That plan ultimately fizzled out when they couldn’t get someone to agree to that structure.

But ultimately, there is already a coach on the staff who oversees Hackett. He just hasn’t done it much because he is a defensive coach. I’m talking about Robert Saleh.

Saleh is the head coach and just because he has a defensive background, doesn’t mean he is ignorant to how an offense should run. At the end of last season, he did put the onus on himself to get more involved with offensive gameplan and to his credit, Saleh has begun taking a bigger role in the offense thus far in OTAs.

“As a defensive coach, he’s been in that room a lot, but he’s been kind of sitting over to the left of me a good amount of the offseason so far,” Rodgers told ESPN about Saleh. “So we appreciate his influence. He’s brought some really good ideas to the table. He’s added a lot of interesting stuff that you’ll see throughout the OTAs and training camp, which I think would be pretty cool for us.”

Saleh believes that after a year of “learning the offensive system” he is now able to contribute to it. “You know, last year there was so much newness to it. A year ago, everyone was learning the system. Everyone was learning and listening,” Saleh said. “This year is more back and forth and trying to evolve. There's more dialogue, I would say. So, it's actually been really good and really beneficial for everybody.”

Coach Saleh speaks on the changes from year one to year two with @AaronRodgers12 pic.twitter.com/BUc7L9UNU9

— New York Jets (@nyjets) May 21, 2024

The Jets learned last year how bad things can get when they put too much on the shoulders of one man. If the Jets are going to make any noise this year, they will need a more well-rounded game plan that isn’t reliant on “Aaron Rodgers will figure it out”. Saleh taking more control of the offense will hopefully lead to the Jets avoiding the mistakes of last season.

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