The Jets got QB, OC, and playbook, too
The Jets didn’t just trade for Aaron Rodgers to quarterback their team and lead them to their first Super Bowl in 55 years. They brought him in to be a coach and offensive architect.
“He’s a coach that can still play football,” head coach Robert Saleh quipped.
The Jets did a unique thing this offseason when they acquired a veteran quarterback to get them over the top. They also brought in his favorite playbook, his hand-picked offensive coordinator, and two of his favorite receivers.
Rodgers is reunited in New York with offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett, who was the Packers’ coordinator from 2019-21 and helped Rodgers win MVP in ‘20 and ‘21. The Jets also signed former Packers receivers Allen Lazard and Randall Cobb.
The setup is different from what Peyton Manning had in Denver, Tom Brady had in Tampa Bay, and Matthew Stafford with the Rams. All three won Super Bowls with their new teams, but had early struggles as they adjusted to new coaches, teammates, and schemes which preceded them.
It took Brady two months of the regular season to get comfortable with Bruce Arians and Byron Leftwich. Manning started 2-3 in his first season with Mike McCoy and Adam Gase before ripping off 11 straight wins. Stafford didn’t really catch fire with
Sean McVay and the Rams until December.
But for the Jets, instead of forcing Rodgers to learn a new system, it’s everyone else in New York who needs to learn from him.
“It’s the Aaron Rodgers offense,” said Lazard, entering his sixth season with Rodgers. “I’m pretty much like a teacher’s assistant at this point. I’ve been very fortunate in my career to be able to stay in the same system with the same language with the same quarterback, and sometimes I’ve got to dumb myself down a little bit so I can make it more receivable for other guys.”
The Jets’ setup provides hope that Rodgers, who turns 40 in December, can rebound from a sub-standard 2022 season, in which the Packers went 8-9 and Rodgers had his lowest-rated season (91.1) since becoming a starter in 2008. Rodgers’s fall-off coincided with Hackett leaving to become head coach of the Broncos last year.
Rodgers said that the offense the
Jets are running now is the one that he, Hackett, and Packers coach Matt LaFleur came up with in the 2020 offseason, which resulted in Rodgers going 26-6 and winning two MVP awards.
“It’s exciting to be back in this style that I know really well,” Rodgers said. “Back in 2020, it was a conglomeration of what Matt wanted to run, what Hack had run in the past, and what I had run, and we just kind of fit it together. And this is kind of an offshoot of that, with maybe a little bit more West Coast flavor to it.”
Rodgers will be comfortable with the offense and play-caller, but the tricky part is getting everyone else up to speed. As Lazard said, “A lot of the coaches are learning Aaron, learning Hackett’s philosophy with the scheme.” And outside of Lazard and Cobb, Rodgers has an entirely new cast of receivers.
Rodgers noted that he wasn’t able to throw with most of his receivers this offseason because of varying schedules. And key players such as receiver
Mecole Hardman, receiver Corey Davis, and tight end Tyler Conklin didn’t participate much in the spring.
At Thursday’s practice, the first one of training camp, Rodgers did plenty of teaching and correcting as players worked on hand signals and verbal cues at the line of scrimmage.
“Today we had quite a few little issues,” Rodgers said. “Now we can go back and watch them and talk about them. As long as we fix them, we’re moving in the right direction.”
Working in the Jets’ favor is that the Rodgers scheme doesn’t seem to be a major change from what they ran last year under then-offensive coordinator
Mike LaFleur, the younger brother of the Packers’ coach who learned the same offensive philosophies.
“If you play ball, you know what we’re running — we’re running West Coast offense,” said receiver Garrett Wilson, the reigning rookie of the year. “We know it, but there’s a lot of nuances to it. That’s the difference this year.”
Hackett had a terrible debut as a head coach in 2022, going one-anddone with the Broncos after a 5-12 season. But Hackett has a terrific history as an offensive coordinator, helping
Blake Bortles put up a career year in Jacksonville and reach the AFC Championship Game, and helping Rodgers win two MVPs.
“It is really, really good the way those two interact,” Saleh said of Hackett and Rodgers. “And the freedom at which people have to voice their opinion, which is awesome. I always encourage players challenging coaches. [Hackett’s] very comfortable in his skin, and he’s just got a style to him, a lot of juice, a lot of energy, and the guys respond to it.”
The Jets surely will have growing pains as they get used to Rodgers and Hackett, and vice versa. But giving Rodgers his hand-picked coordinator and playbook potentially sets up the Jets for early success.
“There is a lot of teaching, for sure,” Rodgers said. “We’ve got to assimilate those guys into what we’re doing in short order. And we will.”