While both options have their advantages, New York Jets offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett clearly prefers one over the other.
When the Jets kick off the season against the San Francisco 49ers on Monday Night Football, Hackett will be on the field as opposed to upstairs in the coaches' booth.
Being on the sideline gives Hackett the opportunity to have in-game face-to-face interactions with quarterback Aaron Rodgers . He finished the 2023 season, his first with the Jets, calling the plays from upstairs, but he was the on field when Rodgers started in Week 1.
In addition to his desired access to Rodgers, Hackett explained a distinctive advantage to coaching from the sideline, especially with a team that has multiple new faces in the starting lineup.
"You never know what's going to happen until it's a real football game, and you see how people respond. That's why it's sometimes good to be on the sidelines, so you can look at everybody in the eye and get a great feel for how they're going to be on gameday," said Hackett.
Hackett and Rodgers have a special relationship that yielded massive on-field success with the Green Bay Packers. Over three seasons with Hackett as OC, Rodgers passed for 111 touchdowns and 13 interceptions while the team compiled 39 regular season wins.
Hackett was on the headset as Rodgers won back-to-back NFL MVP awards in 2020 and 2021. While he's seen the future Hall-of-Fame field general at the height of his game , Hackett sounded seemingly even more impressed by the 40-year-old's comeback from a torn Achilles. After going down in the 2023 season opener, Rodgers returned to practice in December and has shown no ill effects during OTAs and training camp.
"It's been amazing, just thinking about last year when he was out there practicing and seeing what he could do in such a short period of time. It just shows his mentality, the competitor he is," said Hackett on Friday. "You can't speak highly enough about the man and his determination, and his competitiveness. It doesn't matter what you do with this guy, he's always going to do everything to not just beat you, but beat you bad."
Hackett and Rodgers will be back at it together on September 9 against the reigning NFC champions.
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