Jaguars Ask to Interview Green Bay Packers OC Nathaniel Hackett

Well, it felt like it was only a matter of time. The Jacksonville Jaguars have requested to interview Green Bay Packers offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett—and I imagine there will be several more requests that he receives.

Under the NFL’s new guidelines, teams with head coaching vacancies can interview coaches over these final two weeks of the regular season, rather than waiting until the playoffs began like in previous years.

Prior to joining the Green Bay Packers as part of Matt LaFleur’s staff, Hackett was the offensive coordinator in Jacksonville, which included a trip to the 2017 AFC Championship Game.

Although Hackett was fired in November of the 2018 season, as Jason Hirschhorn of The Leap documented, Hackett was still held in high regard by many of the higher-ups within the Jaguars organization.

"“Despite the defeat (in the AFC Championship Game), Hackett’s work drew high marks with Jaguars ownership, according to sources with knowledge of the situation. The team’s struggles the following season and Hackett’s firing in November — a nakedly self-serving decision by Marrone, then under siege and in need of a sacrificial lamb to save his job — did not materially dampen his reputation with the power brokers still in Jacksonville today."

While LaFleur is the play-caller in Green Bay, Hackett has been an integral part of cultivating game plans on a week-to-week basis for quarterback Aaron Rodgers and this offense.

In 2020, the Green Bay offense ranked first in points per game and scored a touchdown on 80 percent of their red-zone visits—an absurdly high rate and a specific part of the game plan that fell under Hackett’s control. The Packers also have 38 wins over this three-year span.

Between working alongside Rodgers and being a part of one of the more innovative offenses’ in football, Hackett’s name is going to be a very popular one on this hiring cycle.

"“Hackett is creative, thoughtful, extremely high-energy and a little quirky, in a way that helps him connect with and inspire this generation of players,” said NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero. “Matt LaFleur calls the plays, but Hackett presents multiple times a week — his Friday “gold zone” meetings are legendary — and creates tip sheets for players on the game plan every day. If there’s one guy who will inject life into a program that’s been putting people to sleep, it’s Hackett."

This, of course, is just speculation on my part, but I find it hard to believe that Hackett won’t be a head coach somewhere in the NFL next season—and if that’s the case, LaFleur will have to find a new offensive coordinator. Two internal candidates include QB coach Luke Getsy and OL coach Adam Stenavich.

With that said, there’s still a ways to go before these decisions are made, not to mention that Hackett and this Green Bay Packers team hopefully have another Super Bowl run in them. But as more head coaching positions become available, we are going to continue to see Hackett’s name popping up.

"“Look, he’s been around the game forever,” said Rodgers of Hackett via SI. “He’s got an incredible passion, he has a great football mind, he’s an incredible teacher. I definitely see him as head coach material.”"