So Much for the Jets Rallying Around Nathaniel Hackett: It Turns Out They Tried to Hire Arthur Smith to 'Assist' Him
Rich Schultz. Getty Images.There was a brief, shining, moment of optimism in the Jets' continued dreary, hopeless, accursed existence in 2023 was the game in October that Clem wrote about, when they rallied to defend the honor of OC Nathaniel Hackett:
It truly was an inspiring moment. It proved that Hackett wasn't just one of several hires meant to appease Aaron Rodgers:
He was also someone who enjoyed the respect of the entire organization. Even with Rodgers' season ending before it even began. Making his truly the feel-good story of an otherwise dismal season.
Yeah. About that. It would appear Jets management wasn't so inspired:
Source - As the Jets explored the possibility of hiring an offensive coordinator to coordinate the offense coordinated by Nathaniel Hackett, an offensive coordinator who did the job well enough in Tennessee to become a head coach was contacted.
As reported by Dianna Russini of TheAthletic.com, former Falcons coach Arthur Smith was “talked to about possibly being part of the play-calling process.”
PFT has confirmed that there were communications. However, we’re told that Smith wasn’t interested, in part because the role wasn’t clear.
The job Smith now has — Steelers offensive coordinator — is the one Smith wanted. Once it was offered, that was that.
The report makes far more tangible the reporting that the Jets were looking for someone who would supervise the man who supervises the offense. The more direct approach would have been to fire Hackett and hire a new coordinator. And that might have happened, if the starting quarterback who wanted Hackett to be the offensive coordinator would have allowed it.
Any way you look at it, this is pure, uncut, narcotic awkwardness for Hackett, for Rodgers, for Robert Saleh and the entire Jets organization. No matter what role they intended for Smith. Assistant Offensive Coordinator. Assistant to the Offensive Coordinator. Consultant. Senior Advisor. Chief of Staff. It's a vote of No Confidence from any angle.
Bosses simply do not look to bring in someone to work with you when they're happy with the work you doing. And the Jets can employ whatever euphemism they want. But "being part of the play-calling process," calls itself "firing your sorry ass and replacing you" when it's at home with its feet up.
So now everyone is expected to simply show up to Jets camp next week pretending this didn't happen. That Hackett wasn't one of Rodgers' nepo hires, and that the higher ups tried to replace him, but got turned down by their first choice, who wanted no part of climbing into their clown car.
And the minute their offense struggles, it'll be either Hackett's Strike 2 or his Strike 3, and he'll be gone. Which will likely alienate Rodgers. Perhaps to the point he'll question whether he needs the bullshit of learning some other coordinator's system at his age. Or, Rodgers pulls a power play and uses his remaining juice to shield a guy the rest of the organization has already demonstrated has no faith in him. Unless, Of course, there's always the possibility Hackett learns to coordinate to everyone's satisfaction and Rodgers doesn't play like virtually every other 41 year old QB not named Tom Brady. If not, it'll be the most Jets situation we've seen in years. And I for one cannot wait.
