It was not the best of weeks to be for former Buffalo Bills coach Nathaniel Hackett.
Hackett is currently the New York Jets offensive coordinator. Last season, he was the Denver Broncos head coach and it did not go well. He was fired in the middle of a terrible season.
Hackett got his feet wet in the NFL with the Buffalo Bills back in 2008 but is more notably known as the team’s offensive coordinator from 2013-2014 while on Doug Marrone’s coaching staff.
Longtime New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton has taken over the coaching duties in Denver this offseason, post-Hackett. Payton has gone on to rip Hackett for the job he did.
Payton said Hackett was downright bad at being a coach.
“It might have been one of the worst coaching jobs in the history of the NFL,” Payton told USA TODAY. “That’s how bad it was.”
“The offense. I don’t know Hackett,” Payton continued. “A lot of people had dirt on their hands. It wasn’t just Russell [Wilson]. He didn’t just flip. He still has it. This B.S. that he hit a wall? Shoot, they couldn’t get a play in. They were 29th in the league in pre-snap penalties on both sides of the ball.
“It doesn’t happen often where an NFL team or organization gets embarrassed. And that happened here.”
Ouch.
Payton has gone on to say he regrets his comments. Hackett himself has yet to reply, but Jets head coach Robert Saleh did.
“Obviously we’re doing something right if you’ve got to talk about us when we don’t play you until Week 4,” Saleh said.
From a neutral standpoint, that’s going to be a fun game to watch in… Week 5. Saleh had the schedule wrong, but even Bills fans will want to tune in for that Jets-Broncos matchup.
And, again, Hackett is in New York and now an AFC East rival. Just another twist of the knife Bills Mafia will enjoy about this story.
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