The NFL is known as a now league, where seasons are long and memories are short.
There is no better example of that line of thinking than Nathaniel Hackett's response to an inquiry about his thoughts ahead of the Jets' Week 4 game against visiting Denver at MetLife Stadium on Sunday afternoon. Hackett spent a short stint at the Broncos head coach in 2022 before being named the Green & White's offensive coordinator for the 2023 season.
Asked if his time in the Mile High city was all that long ago, on Thursday Hackett said: "Yeah, last Thursday [the Week 3 win over New England] was a long time ago for us coaches, and we're just getting ready to win a football game."
Obviously, it's the now that counts ... and the next game.
The Jets (2-1) come into the game seeking their third straight win, off a mini-bye following three games in 11 days to start the season. And after the loss in Week 1 at San Francisco, Hackett, quarterback Aaron Rodgers and the rest of the Jets offense have shown impressive glimpses of a unit hitting its stride. After missing all but 4 snaps last season, Rodgers completed 27-of-35 passes for 281 yards and 2 TDs -- showing the skill and steely determination that has made him a four-time league MVP. In the red zone, the Jets are tied for third in the league, converting 75% of the time while scoring 6 TDs in eight drives.
"He did good. He did good," Hackett said of Rodgers' play against the Patriots. "Still, you know, I think there's so much improvement across the board for our offense that we need to have, and we just got to get a little better each week. And I think that we took a little step last week.
"I mean, it had been a long time since he played football, since he had gone out there in front of a crowd, and so I just wanted to continually get comfortable."
Rodgers sprayed the ball around to eight receivers with TE Tyler Conklin (5 catches, 93) yards and WR Garrett Wilson (5 for 33) topping the list. Still the perception seems to be that the Rodgers-to-Wilson connection has yet to take off this season and will likely be challenged this weekend in a potential matchup against Denver CB Patrick Surtain II. The good news for the Jets offense, however, is that Rodgers has brought Allen Lazard back into the fold, gained an option in Mike Williams, has found Conklin multiple times on off-schedule plays and has exploited the pass-catching ability of RBs Breece Hall and rookie Braelon Allen.
So far this season, Wilson has 15 receptions (1 behind Hall, the team leader) and 150 yards (10 per catch) to go with last week's short TD pass from Rodgers. He's also caught 9 balls for first downs and 59 yards after catches.
"Just because we're always striving for perfection, although it's never going to be perfect for me, a solid offense is when a lot of people are touching the football, you never want one person to be the true focal point," Hackett said. "You want the defense to have to be able to cover everyone, and that's just going to free more people up to get big plays. I mean, Conklin had a big game, he hadn't seen a lot of touches. Mike had some big, key catches [3 for 34 yards]. Allen got a touchdown. That's what you're looking for when multiple people are scoring, you're making a defense cover the whole field. So everything will come. We just have to keep getting better every game."
Wilson has caught at least 1 pass in all his 37 career games and he's working on a streak of 31 games with multiple receptions.
Hackett said: "Garrett's an elite football player in this league. We want to get him the ball, but if something happens, or he's taken away, the ability for the quarterback to progress and then other people make plays, allows us to get another opportunity to potentially target him. But for us, it's about a system. It's about a system. And he might be Number 1, he might get it. He might get it, he might not. He might be Number 2, and he might get it. And everybody thought he was Number 1. So it's just about the flow of the offense, and when Aaron is going, I think that's the most important thing, because it gives us a lot of opportunities."
