The funniest part about the Nathaniel Hackett NFL cycle over the last few years is that no matter how disastrous his most recent stop was, someone is always willing to look past it and remember the Aaron Rodgers days. The Denver Broncos hired Nathaniel Hackett back in 2022 due to his successes with Rodgers in the years prior with the Green Bay Packers. Well, that didn't work out for anyone involved, but Hackett is now back in the spotlight a bit.
After an absolutely abysmal season, the Arizona Cardinals are seemingly in the process of blowing everything up. They were one of the last teams to land a new head coach, probably doing a large part to the fact that they’re easily the worst team and easily the best division in the game. Things are bleak in Arizona, and there’s no real reason to believe it’ll get better.
Now, enter one of the worst offensive coaches in recent memory. A head coaching tenure so bad that it ended before the first year was up, fans were counting down the play clock, not even two full games into the season, and an offensive coordinator's tenure with the New York Jets that went so bad that he ended up a defensive assistant immediately after. His next chapter? Offensive coordinator of the Arizona Cardinals.
The Cardinals have hired former Broncos head coach Nathaniel Hackett as their offensive coordinator
Despite previously being hired by the Miami Dolphins as their quarterbacks coach a few days back, Hackett is now off to the NFC West to coordinate an offense that, as of right now, is just Trey McBride and Marvin Harrison Jr. This is a pretty quick rise back to prominence for Hackett, who again, was a defensive assistant in Green Bay just last year. Going from working on the defensive side of the ball for a year to being an offensive coordinator in one offseason is a pretty jarring rise.
The issue with this, however, is that Hackett's most recent three years of play-calling were a disaster. The 2022 Broncos are one of the worst teams in recent memory, and might be the biggest single-season disaster in Broncos history. In a year in which they were supposed to finally return to contention, Hackett led the ship to incredibly low lows.
Despite three brutal years of play-calling in a row, Hackett is getting another chance at being heavily involved in the offensive schematics of the Cardinals. With no offensive line, no quarterback, no true core, and no extra draft capital, it is an uphill battle in Arizona. No one can be sure if Hackett is one of the captains you want rebuilding a ship, and history would suggest that this isn't a great start for the Cardinals.