Win-now Jets hoping Aaron Rodgers-Nathaniel Hackett dynamic will pay off the way it was meant to last year

Aaron Rodgers and Nathaniel Hackett just click, quarterback and offensive coordinator, from the way they see offensive football to their love of travel to books and conversations and so much more.

“I think that there are just people in this profession that you’re drawn to,” Hackett said Wednesday via Zoom before the Jets had a walk-through at their Florham Park facility and flew for their joint practice with Carolina Thursday and preseason game Saturday night against the Panthers.

“I think that we’ve been very lucky because we’ve had a lot of the same likes. We start from a foundation of an offense that we both grew up in, for him being (in Green Bay) with coach Mike McCarthy, who was with my father (Paul, the former Jets offensive coordinator), and so we have this whole background of offense.

“And off the field, I just think the world of him. I think he’s one of the best people I’ve ever met. So you combine all that stuff and it just brings us together. Our sense of humor is the same, all that stuff.”

But the joke was on both of them last year in their debut season with the Jets, and it wasn’t funny.

Rodgers lasted four snaps before his Achilles snapped via a sack, taking the Jets’ season down with him. Hackett was left with Zach Wilson, Tim Boyle and Trevor Siemian as his quarterbacks, not to mention 13 different offensive line combos because of injuries.

This time, though, the win-now Jets can hope the Rodgers-Hackett dynamic will pay off the way it was supposed to happen last season.

Besides the line being upgraded, Rodgers is healthy again, and the 40-year-old four-time MVP showed in practice Tuesday that he can still move to extend plays and run if need be.

“I give so much credit to Aaron, the things that he’s put himself through to be able to get back to where he’s at right now,” Hackett said. “I think we saw a little bit of it (Tuesday). He looks like he always has.”

Hackett is only 4 years older than Rodgers. They had previously worked together from 2019 to 2021 with Green Bay.

“We speak the same language, West Coast language,” Rodgers said of the offense.

In 2022, Hackett left to coach Denver. Then the Broncos fired him after a 4-11 start. Last summer, new coach Sean Payton ripped him over the job he did there.

Rodgers shot back at Payton and spoke of how much he loved Hackett and how much he enjoyed working with him.

But more criticism rained on Hackett en route to the Jets finishing 7-10 and second to last in the offensive yardage rankings.

“I felt very protective of him,” Rodgers said. “I think, thankfully, a lot of that’s in the rearview mirror for both of us, but it’s been a tough couple years with some of the stuff that Coach (Payton) said about him and then obviously the scrutiny with our offense struggling.

“I feel like he took a lot of it on the chin and wore it well, but we’d like to show some things this year.”

Hackett handled the heat, calling it “part of the job.” Plus, he had his dad as a role model. Paul Hackett was a head coach at the University of Pittsburgh and USC and a longtime NFL assistant, including those Jets years from 2001 to 2004.

“He’s probably the best ever to just let it roll off your back,” the younger Hackett said. “I try to do the same as he does.”

Robert Saleh has been more involved with the offense than before, but the Jets' coach said that Hackett is “still our play caller. He still runs the offense. He's still in full, total control.”

Rodgers likes the creative dynamic between himself and his OC, the talks after meetings and texts at night.

“Or I go to bed and can’t sleep and I am thinking about some ridiculous adjustment to some play and I come and I share it with him and the ability to refine some of the ideas … ” Rodgers said.

Barring another injury, the Jets will see how far those ideas can take them.