GLENDALE, Ariz. — Chiefs backup quarterback Chad Henne believes the Jets landed someone who can turn things around for Gang Green in latest offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett.
Henne played under Hackett with the Jaguars from 2015-17. Hackett was first his quarterbacks coach then was named offensive coordinator in the course of the 2016 season.
“Nathaniel and I are very close,” Henne said this week as he prepared for Super Bowl 2023 on Sunday against the Eagles. “I feel he’s an unbelievable coach. He’s very much like Coach [Andy] Reid in that he sees the sport just like the quarterback. He communicates to the quarterback.
“Obviously, this yr everyone seems to be like, ‘Oh, Hackett’ due to what happened with the Broncos. But I don’t see it that way. I just feel like he’s got an excessive amount of brainpower, an excessive amount of love for the sport, an excessive amount of emotion that he’ll be back on his feet and lead the Jets to raised places.”
Hackett had his best season as a coordinator with the Jaguars in 2017. With Blake Bortles because the starting quarterback and running back Leonard Fournette leading the way in which, the Jaguars had the very best rushing attack within the NFL and made it to the AFC Championship game, holding a 10-point fourth-quarter lead before falling to the Patriots, 24-20.
“In Jacksonville, we wanted to determine the run,” Henne said. “I might say he’s a run-first guy. He desires to get the tone set on offense with the run game and construct off of that with the pass game. He’s like what we do. We now have different formations that we run. We’ll have a run, we’ll have a few passes off of it. The whole lot sort of meshes and appears the identical. I really like him. He’s among the finest I’ve been around.”
Henne said Hackett’s system shouldn’t be hard to learn for the Jets’ returning players.
“He has the power to regulate,” Henne said. “In the event that they had a system last yr with different verbiage, he can tie of their verbiage along with his verbiage, especially with a young quarterback. Obviously, nobody knows what’s going to occur with Zach [Wilson]. But he has the power to regulate and make it easy on the offense, as well.”
