Aaron Rodgers runs the NY Jets offense. He may not have an official title of "offensive coordinator" or "play caller" on his contract, but this is Rodgers' offense.
It's not Nathaniel Hackett's offense, it won't be Todd Downing's offense — this is the Rodgers show. That's perfectly fine and even a good thing if the offense is working and scoring points. That hasn't been the case through five weeks.
The Jets' offensive struggles ultimately resulted in the team parting ways with now-former head coach Robert Saleh this past week. Saleh knew that changes needed to be made to the offensive coaching staff in the offseason. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to make the necessary changes.
The Athletic's Dianna Russini reported on Saturday that Saleh made multiple attempts to hire a new offensive coach in the offseason, approaching the likes of Eric Bieniemy, Kliff Kingsbury, Luke Getsy, and Arthur Smith. Ultimately, they failed to recruit any of them.
The reason why is exactly what many have speculated for months now.
Russini reports that the Jets were not able to offer any of those coaches an offensive coordinator position, which severely limited the attractiveness of the job. All four of the above coaches landed offensive coordinator positions elsewhere in the offseason.
Why weren't the Jets able to offer them offensive coordinator jobs? Nathaniel Hackett. Or more specifically, Aaron Rodgers.
Rodgers was reportedly involved in the process of adding a new coach and was seemingly aware of the fact that things needed to change, but "he wasn’t going to boot Hackett." He refused to let the Jets fire or demote Hackett in the offseason.
As a result, they missed out on the opportunity to make any meaningful changes to their offensive coaching staff, settling for new running backs and wide receivers coaches instead.
Just five weeks into the season, Saleh has been fired and the Jets finally demoted Hackett in favor of passing game coordinator Todd Downing, who has his own spotty record as a play-caller at the NFL level.
Saleh knew that the offensive coaching staff needed an overhaul in the offseason. Rodgers seemingly agreed that change was needed. But that change couldn't come at the expense of his personal play-caller.
Rodgers has clearly changed his opinion on the matter, as Hackett is no longer calling plays for the Jets' offense, but it's too late for Saleh, who is now watching from home as his former team fights for first place in the AFC East on Monday.
Maybe Rodgers has softened his stance and is more willing to allow change in the Jets' offense. But maybe it's also too late. Only time will tell.
