Jets OC Nathaniel Hackett on players-only meeting amidst offensive drought: 'I love it'

It’s been 11 quarters since the Jets last scored an offensive touchdown, or any touchdown for that matter. And after their 16-12 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday night, things boiled over and resulted in a players-only meeting.

Led by wide receiver Garrett Wilson and others on offense, the discussion focused on the offensive drought that has plagued Gang Green all season, but particularly the last three games, and how the team can “get out of this funk” as Wilson put it.

“I think it’s natural for people to all of a sudden be upset about that and be frustrated, even during the game,” said Jets offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett on Thursday. “Our job as a group is to be able to rebound. We have to bounce back.”

Asked specifically about how he felt about the players-only meeting, Hackett was totally on board and thinks “it’s just them trying to hold each other accountable.”

“I love it. I mean the whole idea is for those guys to come together,” he said. “When they cross those lines, the coaches aren’t out there anymore. We work the entire week to get them as prepared as we possibly can. And we can talk and talk and talk and detail up, detail up but if they don’t absorb it and they don’t feel it together as one group then it doesn’t matter what you call, it doesn’t matter what you do.

“So I think that for them to bond, to come together and understand that if we get these things fixed that we’ll have an opportunity to move the ball and score some more points.”

However, things don’t necessarily get easier for the Jets, who travel to Buffalo this week to face the Bills in a divisional matchup with some serious playoff implications.

Currently sitting at 4-5, New York is in third place in the AFC East and on the outside looking in for the postseason. Meanwhile, Buffalo is second in the division at 5-5 and also on the bubble of playoff contention.

If the Jets beat the Bills on Sunday, they will leapfrog Buffalo in the division and also win the season series, 2-0, after beating them at MetLife Stadium in their season opener on Sept. 11.

“The idea is we just gotta get on a roll again,” Hackett said. “I mean we were kind of going through this slump earlier. ... and then we kind of bounced back and started going, so we just need to get over that hump. We need to get that first touchdown in a long time and I think that’s really gonna help us.”

Against a Bills defense that has allowed the ninth-fewest touchdowns (19) this season, that could be easier said than done for quarterback Zach Wilson and Co. However, in their first meeting this season, Wilson completed 14 of 21 passes for 140 yards with a touchdown and an interception in a game he had to replace the injured Aaron Rodgers.

Recently, though, Wilson hasn’t been able to lead the offense with any real consistency -- and he has only five passing touchdowns this season. When he has been able to create some momentum and lead a drive, penalties have gotten in the way.

“It’s not one person. We’ve talked about that for quite a while,” Hackett said. “Zach had some amazing plays last game keeping us alive. ... It’s been a lot of guys, I wish it was just one thing. Then you feel like that is easily correctable, but I think for us as a group it’s about staying together and pushing through this together. With adversity we’ll create growth and that’s what we need.”

Following Thursday's practice, tight end Tyler Conklin added a bit more context to the nature of the meeting.

"It was just us getting together, obviously we all know some of the struggles on offense so we just wanted to get together as a group and just really come together. Kind of like I talked about the other day when I was talking about being together, unity and things like that. It was all good stuff, what was really said I’m just gonna leave in that room, but it was definitely a positive meeting."

Asked if there's been a disconnect with the team and if that's what led to it, Conklin said it was more about holding one another accountable and being more of a player-led team, especially with a roster that is still very young.

"[Head coach Robert] Saleh talks about it, you hear it a lot in football, just being a player-led team and as an offense we really need to step up as players and hold each other accountable and just being more player-led. We’re all grown ups, we’re all grown men… it’s on us to really set the standard.

"We’re the ones out there needing to make plays and stuff so it was more so just about us creating that standard. We still got a young group in a lot of different areas so I think that’s what it was more so about rather than a disconnect.”