Speaker 1: We're presented by win Bet. Benny is a team sport
Speaker 1: bet together at win Bett. Eric Allen here at one
Speaker 1: Jets Drive and the upstairs studios, joined by offensive coordinator
Speaker 1: Nathaniel Hackett. This has been a family business for the
Speaker 1: Hackets because your dad, Paul Hackett, the Jets offensive coordinator
Speaker 1: from two thousand and one to two thousand and four.
Speaker 1: How surreal has this been so far?
Speaker 2: Oh, it's been amazing. I mean I still remember going
Speaker 2: to visit my father now was in a hostra which
Speaker 2: was a little bit different than this facility, which is
Speaker 2: absolutely amazing. But no, those were some great years. I
Speaker 2: mean Kevin Maway, Curtis Martin, Chad Pennington, Gerald Soul, I
Speaker 2: mean Santana Moss, Anthony beckt all those guys that Dave Zott,
Speaker 2: who's in the building with us right now. But I
Speaker 2: just remember watching those games and watching my dad and
Speaker 2: all the success that that was going on during that time,
Speaker 2: and to be part of it and in the building
Speaker 2: is absolutely a pleasure and I'm so grateful.
Speaker 1: So I tweeted about this the other night. The last
Speaker 1: time the Jets had a home playoff game was following
Speaker 1: the two thousand and two season when we were just
Speaker 1: talking about it. That's the last time the Jets won
Speaker 1: the division. Jets shut out Peyton Manning in the Indianapolis
Speaker 1: Colts forty one.
Speaker 2: To know if I had a nickel for every time
Speaker 2: my dad talks to me about that game? Does he
Speaker 2: really all the time? Still? When I think when I
Speaker 2: got the job here, he's, hey, you remember that playoff
Speaker 2: game we beat the Colts and shut him out? I
Speaker 2: was like, yes, Dad, I've seen it, seen it numerous times.
Speaker 2: I was not there, but I remember watching it. I
Speaker 2: was I was coaching at the time. I believe it's
Speaker 2: Stanford during then, or maybe I was. I think I
Speaker 2: was actually still in college, and I remember he sent
Speaker 2: me the tape. It was one of his funnest games
Speaker 2: that he's ever ever coached.
Speaker 1: What are you doing here right now? Because, as Robert
Speaker 1: Sala said, your feet could be in the sand, you
Speaker 1: could be on a beach somewhere, but you decided, hey, listen,
Speaker 1: this opportunity is too good for me to pass up.
Speaker 2: Well, oh yeah, I mean, I think there's so many
Speaker 2: differ factors that went into it. I think family was
Speaker 2: the most important thing for me. I was able to
Speaker 2: spend some time with my family, and I've got kids
Speaker 2: that are that are a little older now, and we
Speaker 2: knew at some point we were gonna have to move
Speaker 2: and we wanted to be sure that we were able
Speaker 2: to get them through high school. So we knew we
Speaker 2: were going to do something. We didn't know exactly what.
Speaker 2: But when this opportunity came up to be able to
Speaker 2: work with a guy like Robert Sala, a bunch of
Speaker 2: the coaches that are on this staff that I've worked
Speaker 2: with in the past and I know and I believe in,
Speaker 2: and I trust, and Rudy and Cotton, and Ron Middleton
Speaker 2: and obviously Robert mentioned before, but those guys mean so
Speaker 2: much to me that I knew that it was a
Speaker 2: good thing being with Scar in the past, just a
Speaker 2: lot of familiarity, and then it being the Jets place
Speaker 2: that my dad had been, being close to New York
Speaker 2: and New Jersey. I mean, there were just so many
Speaker 2: positive things about it that as a family, we decided
Speaker 2: we wanted to hop right back on it and get going.
Speaker 1: When Robert gave you the call, what was your initial reaction.
Speaker 2: I thought we were just going to talk and find
Speaker 2: out about Lifelove and the pursuit and happiness, and then
Speaker 2: all of a sudden was it was about, you know, seriously,
Speaker 2: you know, becoming part of the staff. And he was
Speaker 2: great throughout the whole process. It was obviously an emotional
Speaker 2: year last year and just working with him. And he's
Speaker 2: a friend that I've talked to. I talked to last
Speaker 2: year while I was at Green Bay. We've always kept
Speaker 2: in touch and I've had so much respect for him
Speaker 2: that he was wonderful through the whole thing, and it
Speaker 2: just seemed like it was the right thing to do.
Speaker 1: Why did you guys bond back to your days in
Speaker 1: Jacksonville when he was a linebackers coach here the quarterbacks coach.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, we hit it off real early. I
Speaker 2: remember we had a fantasy baseball team and with some
Speaker 2: of his friends, and you know, we just had a
Speaker 2: lot of things that were in common, and I loved
Speaker 2: his coaching style. He was very energetic like I was.
Speaker 2: So we just kind of hit it off, and we,
Speaker 2: like I said, we had kept in touch since then.
Speaker 1: Who was a better fantasy baseball player?
Speaker 2: He definitely was. I did not do as good as
Speaker 2: I thought. I just drafted one couple particular teams instead
Speaker 2: of going for probably what was the right decision to do.
Speaker 1: He's an ultra competitive dude.
Speaker 2: He is. I have not gotten on there with him,
Speaker 2: but anything that goes on. We've had a couple of
Speaker 2: competitions between the two of us a lot, and it's
Speaker 2: always fun to compete. I'm not gonna say who won
Speaker 2: those competitions me, but it's a lot of fun to
Speaker 2: compete with.
Speaker 1: All right. So did you see had coaching in his
Speaker 1: future back in the day when you were a Jackson.
Speaker 2: I think there's so many coaches that you see things
Speaker 2: like that. You see their energy, their passion, their love
Speaker 2: for the game, and I think Robert had all those things.
Speaker 2: And when he had that opportunity, I became the coordinator
Speaker 2: of the Jaguars and he became the coordinator of the Niners.
Speaker 2: I mean, I knew it was going to be only
Speaker 2: so much time before he would get that opportunity. I mean,
Speaker 2: just his passion for the game, and like I said,
Speaker 2: the love for the players and everything is it's pretty phenomenal.
Speaker 1: You are your old man, But how are you similar
Speaker 1: as a play caller? Is Paul Hackett? How are you
Speaker 1: different as a play caller than Paul Hackett.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, I'll tell you the game has changed so
Speaker 2: much since my dad called called football games. He talks
Speaker 2: to me all the time about how his whole career
Speaker 2: he never got in the gun one time. Every single
Speaker 2: play he called was from under center, which is amazing.
Speaker 2: So there's so many different things that we do and
Speaker 2: so many things that we face. I think that we're
Speaker 2: always going to have the mentality of trying to be
Speaker 2: aggressive with efficiency. I think we always want to try
Speaker 2: to get those those explosive plays. That's something that we're
Speaker 2: always hunting, but understanding when to capitalize on that and
Speaker 2: still get an easy check down or follow through your progression.
Speaker 2: We very much coach the same way that way, but
Speaker 2: I would I would say were we both were always
Speaker 2: pretty aggressive.
Speaker 1: You're dead was a disciple of Bill Walsh. Of course,
Speaker 1: when you hear the term West Coast offense, what's the
Speaker 1: first thing you think of?
Speaker 2: Probably Bill Walsh, that might be the first thing that
Speaker 2: pops to my head, But the West Coast and a
Speaker 2: lot of people talk about that, They say, oh, it's
Speaker 2: West Coast and this and that, and you know, everybody
Speaker 2: runs a lot of the same plays. I think the
Speaker 2: West Coast is based on how you coach the quarterback
Speaker 2: and how you talk to them about their footwork, their eyes,
Speaker 2: their progression, the different mechanics from the center back into
Speaker 2: the pocket or in the gun. And I think that's
Speaker 2: what I'd like to feel as though I'm a true
Speaker 2: West Coast guy from the standpoint of learning from my father,
Speaker 2: learning from Alex van Pelt, whom my dad actually coached them,
Speaker 2: just kind of learning through him and seeing the positives
Speaker 2: of it and the rhythm and the timing of it.
Speaker 2: And it's a fun different way to coach the quarterback. Today.
Speaker 1: We're going to talk about your quarterback here in a moment,
Speaker 1: but can you talk about the successes that you had
Speaker 1: with different guys along the way. Kyle Whorton had a
Speaker 1: career year with you in Buffalo. You talk about Blake Bortles,
Speaker 1: You guys advanced NFC Championship Game. If memory serves me correctly,
Speaker 1: you had a lead on New England in that second half.
Speaker 1: Can you talk about those experiences.
Speaker 2: I think one of the most fun that I've had
Speaker 2: throughout my career is being able to help different guys
Speaker 2: all become successful, and every guy's different. Every single guy
Speaker 2: I've ever coached every guy I've called a play for
Speaker 2: they're also completely different. And the challenge for every coach
Speaker 2: is to be able to fit your system within them
Speaker 2: and what they can do and how they can do
Speaker 2: it efficiently. And as a coach, you might love one play,
Speaker 2: but if a guy can't do it, you have to
Speaker 2: kind of put your ego aside and do something that
Speaker 2: that guy is going to be able to be successful at.
Speaker 2: And I'll tell Kyle Orton was such a pleasure to
Speaker 2: work with when we were at Buffalo that year and
Speaker 2: he came in there and we did some really good things,
Speaker 2: and it was about him. It was what can he do,
Speaker 2: what is he comfortable with, what are his favorite plays?
Speaker 2: And then we try to fit it around him. And
Speaker 2: the same thing with Blake. Working with Blake, I had
Speaker 2: been with him for two years, had a great feel
Speaker 2: for him, and you try to pick those things that
Speaker 2: would make him the most successful. And I think that
Speaker 2: he really believed in all that stuff. And I mean
Speaker 2: that year was absolutely incredible. I mean, just the offense
Speaker 2: in general was much better than some even remember Yea
Speaker 2: and Blake did such a great job in the playoffs
Speaker 2: and we had a chance. We have a chance, and sometimes,
Speaker 2: you know, you get up to New England and things
Speaker 2: don't go your way. But I'll tell you it was
Speaker 2: a heck of a season that year.
Speaker 1: Did you tinker with the blocking system up front? Because
Speaker 1: we always talk about the zone blocking, but then you
Speaker 1: had this straight ahead, big power back in leanner of
Speaker 1: four not. Can you talk about maybe adapting to your personnel.
Speaker 2: Yeah. When I first started, I was primarily inside zone
Speaker 2: and gap schemes, so it was all downhill. That was
Speaker 2: kind of the runs that I had learned the most.
Speaker 2: I think kind of the last chapter for me to learn.
Speaker 2: I've been in so many different systems, created some of
Speaker 2: my own, and I really wanted to learn the outside
Speaker 2: zone world. I always saw some amazing explosive plays, some
Speaker 2: really great play pass actions, and I never really knew
Speaker 2: those until I got to Green Bay and Matt Lafloor
Speaker 2: opened my eyes to another world of you know, we
Speaker 2: had the inside zone, we had the gap schemes, we
Speaker 2: had all those things, and we were very good at those.
Speaker 2: But then all of a sudden, here's this outside zone
Speaker 2: world that I mean, it's just mind blowing on the
Speaker 2: space you can get for the running backs, the redistribution
Speaker 2: of the linebackers in the play pass to be able
Speaker 2: to throw the ball down the field. So I think
Speaker 2: that was kind of the last thing that I heard
Speaker 2: which really made the system that we've got now really
Speaker 2: all encompassing, so that you have the ability to change
Speaker 2: your system for the personnel that you have too. If
Speaker 2: you can attack with outside zone, you can get after it,
Speaker 2: if you need to go more downhill, We've got expertise
Speaker 2: in that now, So I think that was kind of
Speaker 2: the culmination of everything. So it's great to have a
Speaker 2: little bit of everything to change it for the players.
Speaker 1: When you go to Green Bay, how do you establish
Speaker 1: that connection with Aaron Rodgers. Obviously, you guys are a
Speaker 1: new staff there. They had just finished with Mike McCarthy
Speaker 1: this long run. You as a guy who's going to
Speaker 1: be in a quarterback's ear every day, who's going to
Speaker 1: be in the meeting room with him every day, how
Speaker 1: do you establish a connection.
Speaker 2: With Aaron and I I think we both got really lucky.
Speaker 2: I mean, I think we both have a lot of
Speaker 2: the same personality. We're both very inquisitive. We both like
Speaker 2: to know a lot of different answers for everything, and
Speaker 2: I think we just kind of hit it off from that,
Speaker 2: and also having the background of the West Coast system.
Speaker 2: Mike McCarthy, who's somebody that I have so much respect
Speaker 2: for and care for so much, had trained Aaron and
Speaker 2: he had come my dad actually had been with him
Speaker 2: for eight years, so Mike kind of learned from him.
Speaker 2: So the same things that I learned growing up was
Speaker 2: the same stuff that Aaron was trained in early in
Speaker 2: his career. So we had a connection with kind of
Speaker 2: the old school West Coast world, the true West Coast world.
Speaker 2: We also had a lot of that, as I said,
Speaker 2: inquisitive mindset, and we just in the end have a
Speaker 2: lot of the same personality, just our humor and everything,
Speaker 2: and we just hit it off. And it's one of
Speaker 2: those things. It's our relationship is strong now and I'm
Speaker 2: very grateful for it.
Speaker 1: Did you know that right away, like early on in
Speaker 1: your tenure with the Packers, that hey, listen, not only
Speaker 1: do I have a special player, this is a future
Speaker 1: Hall of Famer, one of the best who's ever thrown
Speaker 1: the football, but also that we have a lot of
Speaker 1: parallels and that our communication is really strong.
Speaker 2: I think it's you slowly got to learn it as
Speaker 2: our relationship developed, as we spent more and more time.
Speaker 2: I mean, the amount of time that quarterbacks and the
Speaker 2: coaches spend together is extensive, and just over time, we
Speaker 2: kept just getting to know each other more and more
Speaker 2: and respecting each other more and more. And I think
Speaker 2: for me, you know, you know who Aaron Rodgers is
Speaker 2: a player, but I think until you get to know
Speaker 2: him as a person, I think that's even more astounding.
Speaker 2: I mean, how great of a guy he is, how
Speaker 2: much he cares about the team and all those things.
Speaker 2: I mean, I just I can't say enough good things
Speaker 2: about him and my experience that I've had with him.
Speaker 1: How does he raise the standard of everybody in.
Speaker 2: The building just by walking in. He walks in and
Speaker 2: you feel that rror that surrounds him. I mean, he's
Speaker 2: a man that has a chip on his shoulder all
Speaker 2: the time and wants to be great at everything he does.
Speaker 2: He's an unbelievably ultra competitive human being. It doesn't matter
Speaker 2: what you're playing or competing against him. He wants to
Speaker 2: do every single thing he can to win, and he
Speaker 2: doesn't care who you are. And I think it's all
Speaker 2: those things coming together, and he cares it's not just
Speaker 2: I'm a football player. I'm a football player, but it's
Speaker 2: also he cares about the people around him and wants
Speaker 2: to get to know them.
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Speaker 1: Obviously last year year in Denver, about what we're twenty
Speaker 1: and twenty one like for you in that position, Because
Speaker 1: I think when people think about Aaron, they're automatically just
Speaker 1: looking back at last year when he dealt with a
Speaker 1: number of injuries and still would have posted some of
Speaker 1: the best numbers a Jets passer has ever had, and
Speaker 1: this franchise has been around since nineteen sixty, but the
Speaker 1: numbers in twenty and twenty one, when he's back to
Speaker 1: back MVPs of this league, we're not far removed from that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, those years were absolutely remarkable. I remember it was
Speaker 2: the COVID year and we had just come off the
Speaker 2: twenty nineteen season. I don't think a lot of people
Speaker 2: expected us to do what we did that year, and
Speaker 2: the reality of it is, we weren't a very good
Speaker 2: offense that first year. We started picking up steam as
Speaker 2: the season went on. I think it was the Raider
Speaker 2: game that was a big, big kind of push forward
Speaker 2: when we played them. I think Aaron had one of
Speaker 2: his perfect games in that one, and then we started
Speaker 2: getting a role. But I would say going that second year,
Speaker 2: that COVID year, we all sat down and really created
Speaker 2: a system for who we were. We kind of took
Speaker 2: all the different things from the West Coast system, the
Speaker 2: quick game, the dropback world, paired it up with the
Speaker 2: play pass, and I think we just made this beautiful playbook.
Speaker 2: It was kind of like the one from Waterboy. You
Speaker 2: know that you hide the playbook and I think it
Speaker 2: was perfect for Aaron and the team that we had
Speaker 2: at that time, and it showed on the field. I
Speaker 2: mean it was magic. I mean it was unbelievable. I
Speaker 2: mean we were getting people open all over the field
Speaker 2: and Aaron was making amazing throws and Davante was on
Speaker 2: another level. Alan Lazarre was playing lights out. Bobby Tonyan
Speaker 2: I think had ten touchdowns. I think Aaron threw for
Speaker 2: like forty eight touchdowns. I mean, it was really a
Speaker 2: special year, especially when we got into the old red
Speaker 2: zone we called the gold zone a little bit, but
Speaker 2: it was great. And then twenty one was a lot
Speaker 2: of the same. It wasn't as dramatic as that twenty twenty,
Speaker 2: but Aaron was playing lights out and I think he
Speaker 2: just knew what we were trying to accomplish all the time.
Speaker 2: I thought Matt did a great job game planning with
Speaker 2: all of us and getting the right plan for the guys.
Speaker 2: And those were two amazing years. I wish they would
Speaker 2: have ended with the trophy.
Speaker 1: Well, maybe get one here is that the all impressive
Speaker 1: stat above the rust that he's posted throughout his career,
Speaker 1: the touchdown interception ratio number one in NFL history.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's unbelievable. I mean, I think that year
Speaker 2: it was forty eight touchdowns. I think it might have
Speaker 2: been five interceptions or something like that. It was in
Speaker 2: the single digits.
Speaker 1: And be able to do that though. You think about him,
Speaker 1: and I think about a guy who's not afraid of
Speaker 1: making any throw. Of course, and he can make any throw.
Speaker 2: No, that's true. And I think the beauty of Aaron
Speaker 2: is his ability to see the defense and understanding why
Speaker 2: we're attacking, how we're attacking something. And like we said,
Speaker 2: we want to be aggressive with efficiency. I think he
Speaker 2: is that to a t. He's unbelievably aggressive, but he's
Speaker 2: smart in his decisions. He knows when to take a
Speaker 2: risk and when not to take a risk. He knows
Speaker 2: what he sees, so he knows when he can trust
Speaker 2: his feet to progress and move along the progression instead
Speaker 2: of potentially forcing something that it might have worked, but
Speaker 2: there's just too much risk. So I think that's what
Speaker 2: he His assessment of that throughout the game and in
Speaker 2: real time is pretty spectacular.
Speaker 1: Have you ever had a week in the National Football
Speaker 1: League like the week we just lived through. On Tuesday,
Speaker 1: the trade really became official as far as dott and
Speaker 1: I's crossing the tes, Adam Schefter reported on Monday. But
Speaker 1: then you go through a draft where the team adds
Speaker 1: seven players.
Speaker 2: No, I mean it's it was. It was a long
Speaker 2: week last week. There's been a lot going on and
Speaker 2: it's funny. The excitement is definitely in the air, but
Speaker 2: there's still so much work to be done. I mean,
Speaker 2: just with Aaron getting to know the players, the players
Speaker 2: getting to know him, you know, we're far off, but
Speaker 2: we're going in the right direction, which is all the matters.
Speaker 1: What do you cents from him walking into the building.
Speaker 2: Excitement, He's got a smile on his face. I think
Speaker 2: he's enjoying himself. And I think that when you can
Speaker 2: have any player come into the building and be excited
Speaker 2: to walk in the building, you know they're going to
Speaker 2: make strides as a player. I think that's so important.
Speaker 2: If they walk into a building and don't want to
Speaker 2: be in there, or there's any kind of adversity, especially
Speaker 2: in the off season, you're just not going to get
Speaker 2: as much out of him, out of the players in general.
Speaker 2: And so I think for him, he's got a smile
Speaker 2: on his face. Like I said, he's I mean, heck,
Speaker 2: he's been going to all these New York functions and
Speaker 2: enjoying the scene and everything, So I think that's so important,
Speaker 2: especially taking it.
Speaker 1: No, he hasn't come on, Oh you're not trying to
Speaker 1: get in.
Speaker 2: No, No, he gets to go enjoy all that stuff.
Speaker 1: All right. What do you think about the draft pickups?
Speaker 1: You get a center in the second round with the
Speaker 1: nice mullet, Joe Tipman from a mullet, Carter Warren, Yeah,
Speaker 1: left tackle from Pittsburgh. I wanted to ask you about him.
Speaker 1: Is he in the fifth round? A local kid running back?
Speaker 1: Explosive and then interesting flyer in the seventh round from
Speaker 1: old Dominion in six to eight and can run like
Speaker 1: the win.
Speaker 2: Yes, No, there's definitely guys we're excited to work with.
Speaker 2: For me and my experience, you're always excited about rookies
Speaker 2: on the outside because of all those different things that
Speaker 2: you say, those those stats and all that. But the
Speaker 2: game changes so much in the NFL, So I'm very
Speaker 2: excited about to work with them, and we'll see how
Speaker 2: fast they can pick it up and adjust to the
Speaker 2: speed of the game.
Speaker 1: How much is can a guy like Rogers help Tipman
Speaker 1: as he makes this transition.
Speaker 2: Uh, Tipman is gonna have a unique experience with Aaron.
Speaker 2: Aaron is very particular in a lot of things, just
Speaker 2: like everybody on the field in that huddle, we'll see,
Speaker 2: he's a guy that knows how he wants it, what
Speaker 2: it looks like, and he's going to do everything he
Speaker 2: can to get it to that place.
Speaker 1: How much can these other guys with familiarity with your
Speaker 1: offense be of help to you, not just what they
Speaker 1: do physically, but when you're talking about a guy like
Speaker 1: Alan Wizard or a Billy Turner who's gonna be added
Speaker 1: to the mix, the offensive lineman, you know, Tim Boyle
Speaker 1: in that quarterbacks room. How much can they help you
Speaker 1: with your messaging?
Speaker 2: I mean it's huge. I mean, one, they know me,
Speaker 2: they understand me and how I kind of go about
Speaker 2: my business. But I think it's great for me because
Speaker 2: there are certain things. There's so many details in one
Speaker 2: football play. In one thing, when you get up in
Speaker 2: front of the group, you explain it, you teach it.
Speaker 2: We try to go through all the intricacies. We're kind
Speaker 2: of crunched on time because you want to do so
Speaker 2: much and you might skip over things and I mean,
Speaker 2: Allan's already got raised his hand and corrected me a
Speaker 2: couple of times, which I appreciate so much because it's
Speaker 2: about all of us being on the same page. So
Speaker 2: when you have more people that have been around the system,
Speaker 2: understand the system, they're going to catch those little things
Speaker 2: and maybe there's that little tidbit that might be the
Speaker 2: difference between a good play or a great play or
Speaker 2: a bad play. And I think that's so important to
Speaker 2: have guys like that. And Alan's done a great job,
Speaker 2: Aaron's done it already, Billy will do it. I mean,
Speaker 2: it's so critical to have people like that.
Speaker 1: Lazard said, Nathaniel Hack is the best teacher I've ever had,
Speaker 1: whether that's football or elsewhere. Alan Blizzard, he've been around.
Speaker 1: I mean not saying that he's old by football terms,
Speaker 1: but I mean this is the guy north of twenty five,
Speaker 1: so he's had a lot of teachers over the years.
Speaker 1: What do you think, what kind of response I have
Speaker 1: that to that? When you hear a guy like Lazar's
Speaker 1: speak in that manner about.
Speaker 2: You, I love you, Alan, thank you, I appreciate it.
Speaker 2: You know, It's it's one of those things I've seen
Speaker 2: so many people coach. I've seen been with so many
Speaker 2: different teachers myself, and you look back when you were
Speaker 2: a kid, whether it be you know, youth or high
Speaker 2: school or college or whenever that time was, and you
Speaker 2: think about your favorite subject, and the funny thing is
Speaker 2: a lot of the time your favorite subject was because
Speaker 2: of the that was the best teacher. He was a
Speaker 2: teacher that taught with passion, excitement, and it might be
Speaker 2: something that's very trivial, but they made it exciting. And
Speaker 2: I think that for me when I started doing this,
Speaker 2: that's what I wanted to do. I remember watching my
Speaker 2: dad install and there's this these lines up on the
Speaker 2: paper and it was just a basic corner route or
Speaker 2: a scene round or just something very very simple. And
Speaker 2: you talk to Santana or Lavernius Coles or Wayne or Patten, Hey,
Speaker 2: this is you and you're gonna do this, and I mean,
Speaker 2: I'm just like wow, Like you could see it come alive.
Speaker 2: And back then it was just the overheads, you know,
Speaker 2: the clear things there and he's got his markers and
Speaker 2: he's drawn all up, and it just I saw things
Speaker 2: come alive. And I look back to, you know, the
Speaker 2: teachers that I've had in my past, throughout throughout learning,
Speaker 2: and you know, you just realize you got to bring
Speaker 2: that passion every day and you can't just install one
Speaker 2: play every single day and be monotonous and just say
Speaker 2: this is what we're doing. I mean, you got to
Speaker 2: bring some juice to it. You got to try to
Speaker 2: spice it up. You got to let them see themselves
Speaker 2: dominating and doing what they want to do out on
Speaker 2: the field. And I think that's something that I like
Speaker 2: to bring every day. I like to do for those
Speaker 2: guys because I want it to be fun. I want
Speaker 2: them to be excited, not know what's going to happen
Speaker 2: when we're in the meeting room. So that like we
Speaker 2: talked about, so that when they walk in the building,
Speaker 2: they're excited, they don't know what's going to happen, because
Speaker 2: then they'll get better if they want to learn and
Speaker 2: want to grow.
Speaker 1: Yeah, specifically, how do you keep it fun now? Because
Speaker 1: the guys talk about games you have and challenges inside
Speaker 1: that room.
Speaker 2: Oh, we're NonStop. I mean we'll utilize all kinds of things.
Speaker 2: You know. I have somebody that we brought here, a
Speaker 2: guy named John Viea that was he was actually a
Speaker 2: high school teacher for a lot of years, and he
Speaker 2: was showing me things that he was using when he
Speaker 2: was teaching ap bio in high school and how he
Speaker 2: was making it creative because it's the same thing for
Speaker 2: teachers across the board, like they have to do the
Speaker 2: same thing. How do we make this information interesting each week?
Speaker 2: And you know, seeing the different things that he utilized
Speaker 2: opened up my eyes to a whole new world of
Speaker 2: making it fun. Having We've got all kinds of different
Speaker 2: things like cahoots and and we have different interactive playbooks
Speaker 2: and stuff. So they watch it and it's a YouTube tutorial,
Speaker 2: I mean, just anything you can spice things up so
Speaker 2: they want to look at it, because otherwise people aren't
Speaker 2: gonna want to look at it, and they still might not
Speaker 2: look at it. I don't know. They they tell me
Speaker 2: they do. But you know, just just as many games,
Speaker 2: as many things that they can test themselves and enjoy themselves,
Speaker 2: and you make it very competitive.
Speaker 1: Where did that relationship to help you? And John who
Speaker 1: if you go to the Jets website, he is the
Speaker 1: team's instructional designer.
Speaker 2: Yes, we've known each other for quite a while. We
Speaker 2: were together in college at one point. It's funny look.
Speaker 1: You see Davis.
Speaker 2: You see Davis was so John and I lived together
Speaker 2: along with the Jero Evere who's now the defensive coordinator
Speaker 2: at the Carolina Panthers. So it's a pretty good house,
Speaker 2: some good football minds there. But so we had known
Speaker 2: each other. John and I majored in neurobiology together, so
Speaker 2: I was working with John for school and then I
Speaker 2: would go with e Jerro for football. So those were
Speaker 2: kind of my two best friends in the world that
Speaker 2: I was always with and I've always kept in contact. Obviously,
Speaker 2: Jeri and I were lucky enough to be with each
Speaker 2: other last year, and John came with us, so it
Speaker 2: was all three of us, and John was the one
Speaker 2: that was able to communicate to us and show us
Speaker 2: that crossover of taking the different world of football and
Speaker 2: putting it into this gaming slash learning environment that is
Speaker 2: kind of what's going on in today's world. I mean,
Speaker 2: people have their phones, iPads, all those things. So you
Speaker 2: have to as a coach, you have to adjust, you
Speaker 2: have to adapt, and anyway we can have the guys
Speaker 2: learn things faster, understand what they're supposed to do better.
Speaker 2: You're going to try to do that and get that advantage.
Speaker 1: You're a unique dude for a number of reasons. But
Speaker 1: you see Davis neural biology major. Yeah, what were you thinking?
Speaker 2: Yeah, there was a time I wanted to be a doctor.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean I always tell people if I could have
Speaker 2: done surgery on the fifty yard line with eighty thousand
Speaker 2: people watching it, I probably would have wanted to do that.
Speaker 2: But instead now I'm a coach. It's both very hard
Speaker 2: but but but no, it was. It was the hardest,
Speaker 2: one of the harder majors in Davis. And absolutely loved it.
Speaker 1: It was.
Speaker 2: It was a great experience.
Speaker 1: That's amazing because again, talk to a number of coaches
Speaker 1: over the years. I don't think anybody was normal.
Speaker 2: There's a couple that have some good Oh yeah, there's
Speaker 2: a couple.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean they got interesting background, some engineering guys. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but I'm not neural biology.
Speaker 2: Ye know, it was fun. It would have been fun
Speaker 2: to be a Just imagine me walking in doing surgery
Speaker 2: on you. You probably go the other way, all right.
Speaker 1: The run game. You talked about your red zone successes
Speaker 1: in Green Bay. This is a passing league, but how
Speaker 1: much emphasis do you put on the run as far
Speaker 1: as attacking defenses?
Speaker 2: Quite a bit. I mean you have to be balanced.
Speaker 2: It's funny looking back at that year that Aaron threw
Speaker 2: all the touchdowns, a lot of those things were on
Speaker 2: run alerts. We had a run called and there was
Speaker 2: an advantageous look, so it was able to take the
Speaker 2: easy completion and guys were in space and able to
Speaker 2: make big plays. So, you know, I think that you
Speaker 2: have to be balanced in this league. You can't just
Speaker 2: do one thing because you never want a defense to
Speaker 2: be able to just shut one thing down. And I
Speaker 2: think even when you have a guy like Aaron Rodgers
Speaker 2: that you want to go back there and throw the
Speaker 2: ball every single play, you have to make them on
Speaker 2: of the run because if they honor the run, it's
Speaker 2: going to make it better for Aaron. So I think
Speaker 2: as long as everything's playing against each other and they
Speaker 2: don't know exactly what they're gonna see, I think that's
Speaker 2: the most important thing. So there's a place for both.
Speaker 1: You didn't know one hundred percent if Rogers was gonna
Speaker 1: come here when you took this job. It's like I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be Jets offensive coordinator. What did you like about
Speaker 1: the personnel when you entered and when you see the
Speaker 1: guys as far as wide receivers, the backs, and then
Speaker 1: obviously the offensive line. What did you like about this unit?
Speaker 2: Yeah, there were so many great things. I mean, it's
Speaker 2: a young team, a young group, and they did an
Speaker 2: amazing job drafting last year. And I think that every
Speaker 2: team you walk into you're always excited about what you've
Speaker 2: seen on tape, but we'll really never know until we're
Speaker 2: out on the field in the meeting rooms and continually
Speaker 2: talking and conversing and getting to know each other. So
Speaker 2: I think there's definitely a ton of young talent here,
Speaker 2: a lot of good football players, and I'm excited to
Speaker 2: work with them.
Speaker 1: How can Lazard help? And you talked about it before,
Speaker 1: but specifically Garrett Wilson who had eleven hundred yards receiving
Speaker 1: last year and the Jets played four different quarterbacks, and
Speaker 1: then Nicole Hartman Junior, a multi dimensional threat who comes
Speaker 1: on board after playing the last few years with the Chiefs.
Speaker 2: All those guys. The good thing about those guys is
Speaker 2: they're all specific in things that they can do, but
Speaker 2: they all do a little bit of everything, so it's
Speaker 2: not that we have to just pigeonhole one guy into
Speaker 2: one thing. So I think it's going to be really
Speaker 2: fun to be able to move those guys around, have
Speaker 2: them line up all over the place so people can't
Speaker 2: track them and motion them and hand them the ball
Speaker 2: or or throw them the ball, or have them throw
Speaker 2: I don't know. I don't know, there's enough time. It's
Speaker 2: going to be so exciting. But no, they're all great,
Speaker 2: great men, and I'm enjoying getting to know them. And
Speaker 2: as we get to know them better, we'll we'll know
Speaker 2: where to put them.
Speaker 1: And what advice do you give to the receivers who
Speaker 1: are playing with Rogers for the first time.
Speaker 2: You never know what's going to happen, and everybody's always live.
Speaker 2: I think that's something. And whenever you put a play
Speaker 2: up there, there's we put a one on the number
Speaker 2: one receiver, a two on the two receiver, three, and
Speaker 2: then there's other things across. But in the end, you know,
Speaker 2: any but he can get the ball at any time.
Speaker 1: How cool is that? As a play caller though, knowing
Speaker 1: that you essentially have an extension of yourself out there
Speaker 1: on the field.
Speaker 2: It's gonna be it's gonna be fun. It's it's just
Speaker 2: great to be with him and knowing the man he
Speaker 2: is and how he operates every day. I'm lucky to
Speaker 2: be with him and know that we're always going to
Speaker 2: have a chance.
Speaker 1: What's the off season now, like for you guys, what
Speaker 1: we've entered phase two? What do you have to do
Speaker 1: here before you guys depart for a couple of weeks
Speaker 1: because you're coming back to camp early this year. You
Speaker 1: got the Hall of Fame game. But what do you
Speaker 1: got to get done before the end of Beetrim Mini Camp.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean you start from ground zero when you
Speaker 2: have a new system. So I mean just how we
Speaker 2: set the huddle, how we work through the cadences, the
Speaker 2: different audibles, the checks, everything to just the basic formations,
Speaker 2: the motions, the shifts. I mean, there's so many things
Speaker 2: that you have to go over as a first year
Speaker 2: a group in staff and our coaches, you know, for
Speaker 2: our staff have done a great job because they've had
Speaker 2: to learn it too. You know, we've ron I have
Speaker 2: been with, but we've got so many other guys that
Speaker 2: are kind of trying to pick it up, and they've
Speaker 2: done a great job picking it up. And now it's
Speaker 2: just getting into that information of the players and finding
Speaker 2: out how much they can retain how much they can learn.
Speaker 2: We want to try to give it to them numerous
Speaker 2: times from now until the season starts, so they don't
Speaker 2: hear the first install just one time. They hear it
Speaker 2: in Phase one, they get it in the Phase three world,
Speaker 2: and they get it in training camp. So you're just
Speaker 2: continually teaching the system because you want them to be
Speaker 2: able to go out there and play and not have
Speaker 2: to think about what they're doing. So it's about their
Speaker 2: learning progression here until that first game.
Speaker 1: How much can this defense help you guys? You know,
Speaker 1: as you look ahead to training camp and stuff like this,
Speaker 1: because this is the top five unit across the board
Speaker 1: most metrics last year. The one step that they want
Speaker 1: to take this year is takeaways. Of course, but when
Speaker 1: you look at the personnel at all three levels, if
Speaker 1: you can have success on the practice field, I got
Speaker 1: to imagine you're going to have success on Sundays and beyond.
Speaker 2: Oh no doubt, defense wins championships. I mean that's something
Speaker 2: that's been said for a long time. Offense scores points
Speaker 2: and gets people all fired up, but you have to
Speaker 2: have in the end, you got to have a good defense.
Speaker 2: It's going to be able to stop the opponent, and
Speaker 2: you know, to have this kind of a defense on
Speaker 2: the other side is very exciting. And the fact that
Speaker 2: we get to go against them every single day and
Speaker 2: get tested by a defense at the of this caliber,
Speaker 2: and I mean they have some very good football players.
Speaker 2: Went against them last year while I was at Denver,
Speaker 2: and I mean it was a challenge. I didn't sleep
Speaker 2: well knowing the different guys that we were going to
Speaker 2: have to block, and we gave him run for their money.
Speaker 2: Came down to the end there. But I'll tell you,
Speaker 2: it's great to have a complimentary defense.
Speaker 1: Your enthusiasm is authentic. How pumped are you for the
Speaker 1: opportunity ahead? I mean this is old hat for you
Speaker 1: being in the National Football League, But as far as
Speaker 1: this experience, this chance that you.
Speaker 2: Guys have, I mean, it's anytime you have a chance
Speaker 2: to be a football coach in the NFL grateful, and
Speaker 2: it's you know how hard it is to get one
Speaker 2: of these opportunities, and and you're just so thankful. And
Speaker 2: to be in New Jersey aka New York City is
Speaker 2: just unbelievable. I mean, it's the biggest city, you know,
Speaker 2: in the world, and it's everybody looks to it. And
Speaker 2: I mean, now we've got to put the work in,
Speaker 2: and we got to put the work in to be
Speaker 2: able to live up to those standards that we all want.
Speaker 2: And then we've all said we have and but there's
Speaker 2: a lot of work to be done.
Speaker 1: Nathaniel, appreciate your time today, and you got to let
Speaker 1: us know when a Pops comes to town.
Speaker 2: Will do Yes, he's come by once, Uh, but he'll
Speaker 2: be he'll be driving down here pretty soon.