What Jets Are Saying About Hackett's Sweet Revenge
In somewhat of a no-brainer, the Week 5 game ball went to offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett.
In his first season with the New York Jets, Hackett was back in Denver to face the team that fired him midway through his first season as a head coach.
To raise the stakes of the already-important AFC affair, current Broncos' head coach Sean Payton harshly criticized Hackett in an interview with the USA Today this past summer. In addition to ripping Hackett's short-lived tenure in Denver, Payton took a jab at the Jets for trying to construct a "Dream Team."
In the week leading up to the game, the Jets seemingly adopted a "win one for Hackett" type of mentality. In fact, tight end C.J. Uzomah said as much in a pregame speech to his offensive teammates.
"Coach made this [expletive] personal. Let's win this [expletive] for Hackett," exclaimed Uzomah.
Gang Green proceeded to end the public spat through on-field action, posting a 31-21 victory at Mile High Stadium.
Afterwards, Payton did not sound nearly as confident as he did during the preseason.
"They played better than us. I credit Robert [Saleh] and that staff. They won the game, and that’s how I look at it," said Payton, who watched his team fall to 1-4 overall.
Breece Hall, RB
"It was good, to be honest, mostly for Coach Hackett. I wasn't really worried about myself today. He stayed quiet. He stayed humble, respectful. We wanted to come in and get a win today for him and we did that. The better coach, the better team won."
Robert Saleh, Head coach
“It feels good to win in the league against anybody, it doesn’t matter, but it was special for ‘Hack’. Obviously being here a year ago, [to rack] up over 400 yards on them and putting up 31 points.”
CJ Uzomah, TE
"It's the nature of the beast. We know he wanted to win this one really bad. I'm really glad we got this one.... We're playing for our boys, right? If somebody talks [expletive] about somebody on this team, in our building and the facility, we're gonna play for that person."
Zach Wilson, QB
“You can see the emotion on his face a little bit. He’s trying not to show it, but we all gave him big hugs and told him that we love him. Told him we’re grateful to have him here. He means a lot to us. Winning is hard in this league, so that’s first and foremost, but, obviously, how things went for him this past year, it’s tough so, it means a lot."
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