Nathaniel Hackett fires back at Sean Payton's 'uncalled for' comments

New York Jets offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett has responded to the scathing comments from Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton concerning his coaching job with the Broncos in 2022.

Hackett said that Payton violated the coaching “code” in publicly labeling his coaching job in Denver last year as “one of the worst” jobs he’d ever seen.

“I’ve been involved in this business my whole life, 43 years, and as a coach, as a coach’s kid, we live in a glass house. We know that,” Hackett said Tuesday, via NFL.com. “… And it’s one of those things that there’s a code, there’s a way things are done in that house. This past week, it’s frustrating and it sucks, but we’re all susceptible to it. There are things you do, mistakes you make, and it costs you time on the field, costs you your job, all those things, and I own all that stuff.”

Payton, hired this offseason as Hackett’s successor after the latter was fired after just 15 games last season, unleashed on Hackett and his coaching staff while speaking with USA Today last week. While he didn’t dismiss Russell Wilson from all of the blame, he said it hardly all fell on the quarterback.

“Oh, man,” Payton said. “There’s so much dirt around that. There’s 20 dirty hands, for what was allowed, tolerated in the fricking training rooms, the meeting rooms. The offense. I don’t know Hackett. A lot of people had dirt on their hands. It wasn’t just Russell. 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.”

Sean Payton unloads on Nathaniel Hackett’s coaching job with Broncos in 2023

Wilson threw just 16 touchdown passes during the 2022 season, the lowest total of his career. He also completed just 60.5% of his passes, the worst rate he’s owned since entering the NFL.

Unsurprisingly, the Broncos finished with a 5-12 record and had one of the worst offensive teams in the league. Payton attributes a lot of Denver’s failures from the 2022 season on a horrendous staff.

“They can only beat the [expletive] out of you so much,” Payton said. “But everybody’s got a little stink on their hands. It’s not just Russell. It was a [poor] offensive line. It might have been one of the worst coaching jobs in the history of the NFL. That’s how bad it was.”

Payton later said he regretted some of things he said publicly about Hackett.

“There’s a pound of flesh for these guys and as a coach you stick up for them, and after a while we’re past that season last year and, you know, I said what I said. Obviously, I needed a little bit more restraint and I regret that,” Payton said. “That being said, what I told the team is, if it can happen — I think I’m pretty good relative to working with the media and pretty savvy — I just had one of the moments.

“Jarrett [Bell] is a good friend, really good at his job, and two lattes in the morning, first one I see and 40 minutes later I’m regretting it. So, it is what it is”