Jets ready to deliver 'payback' against Broncos following Sean Payton's offseason comments
The New York Jets strongly backed offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett this week following offseason comments from Sean Payton, head coach of their Week 5 opponents, the Denver Broncos.
"He got thrown under the bus — and then they tried to drag him under the bus," Jets center Connor McGovern told ESPN's Rich Cimini. "We wanted to rally around him from the start. He's such a good guy. I don't know how you want to say this — the opportunity he has — but we want to make the most of him being our playcaller.
"He's a phenomenal coach, crazy smart, and he makes meetings really fun and easy to learn. So, he's definitely a guy that you want to play hard for. Then to go to a place that was dogging a guy that's so nice and so good at his job, and for him to get thrown under the bus and dragged through the mud, you definitely want to play that much harder."
Said guard Alijah Vera-Tucker: "We rally behind Hack, regardless. I think this week there may be a little bigger chip on some of the guys' shoulders just because the comments that were made before."
The strong defense of their offensive coordinator comes nearly three months after Payton ripped last season's Broncos team in an interview with USA Today in July, and did not have kind words for the job Hackett did as their head coach.
"It might have been one of the worst coaching jobs in the history of the NFL. That’s how bad it was," Payton said in the interview about the 2022 Broncos, who went 4-11 before Hackett was fired in December.
Those comments obviously did not sit well with the Jets, who came out quickly to defend Hackett in the days after the interview was published. Aaron Rodgers, who had Hackett as his offensive coordinator from 2019-21 while with the Green Bay Packers, called Payton "insecure." Head coach Robert Saleh said to "hate away."
When asked for his thoughts, Hackett said Payton broke a coaches "code."
Payton did respond to the Jets' defense of Hackett by saying he still had his "Fox hat on and not my coaching hat. ... It was a mistake, obviously. I needed a little bit more filter."
So you can see why the Jets are pretty fired up to show Payton just how wrong he was about Hackett, who noted this week he did not receive any sort of apology from the Broncos' head coach.
A meeting between two 1-3 teams wouldn't ordinarily have a lot of spice, but the Jets' desire to back their offensive coordinator puts a little more interest into this matchup. Had Rodgers not been hurt, who knows how much more heat would have been directed Payton's way?
Jets players said Hackett has not brought up Payton's comments during their preparation this week, but they haven't forgotten.
"That's not the type of guy he is," McGovern said. "He has put his head down to grind. He doesn't let stuff affect him. But that organization did him dirty, and we definitely want to allow him to get some payback."
