Jets OC Nathaniel Hackett Addresses Breece Hall’s Frustration vs. Cowboys

Getty New York Jets running back Breece Hall in 2022.

After the 30-10 loss in Dallas, New York Jets running back Breece Hall expressed some frustration about his lack of carries, which included a deleted post on X.

During his weekly media availability session on September 21, Jets offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett addressed Hall’s usage and the overall difficulty running the football against the Dallas Cowboys — who held NYJ running backs to 24 total rushing yards.

“Third down,” he began. “Anytime you have that small [of an] amount of plays — I think we had about 13 plays before we got into that first two-minute [period before halftime] — it’s hard to get anything going. We had a really good plan that we wanted to actually execute, and if you don’t get plays you can’t do that.”

As for Hall’s deleted tweet — which was four football and an ellipsis, seemingly referencing his four carries — Hackett chose not to single anyone out responding that “everybody’s workload was very low this past week.”

“I think we had a total of 49 watchable plays, and I think we had two false starts too,” he went on. “So, we just didn’t have a lot of plays [which] hurts us because we can’t get a lot of people involved. There were a lot of people that we wanted to get featured and going on early but if you don’t convert on third downs, especially those third and manageables, you’re not going to have those opportunities.”

Hackett had a similar answer for questions about wide receiver Mecole Hardman’s lack of snaps in Week 2.

Jets’ Nathaniel Hackett Tips Cap to Cowboys & Micah Parsons While Discussing NYJ Offensive Line

While defending his offensive line, Hackett also praised Cowboys superstar Micah Parsons and the plan from Dallas defensive coordinator Dan Quinn.

“[Parsons is] a very, very good football player,” the NYJ coach stated. “I give them tons of credit for their plan, they put him all over the place — they put him in the middle, they put him on the outside, they do a great job because you never know exactly where he’s gonna be.”

Hackett added that while the initial strategy was to supply the OL with more help blocking Parsons, they needed to put more playmakers on the field later “as the game got out of hand.”

“You want to try and get some easy, quick completions,” Hackett noted. “We started off by trying to get the quick game [going but] we even underestimated his speed on the quick game. I mean, [Parsons] is spectacular.”

Later, his overall assessment on the blocking unit was that the offensive struggles have been on “everybody,” not just the O-line. Hackett also stressed that the Jets “need to be able to execute and convert on third downs” throughout his press conference.

Ex-Jets RB Zonovan ‘Bam’ Knight Gets Signed to Lions Active Roster With David Montgomery Injured

Former Jets fan favorite UDFA Zonovan “Bam” Knight is back on one of the NFL’s 32 active rosters in Week 3. His player agent Mike McCartney announced the news on September 19, voicing: “Pumped for @knight_zonovan signing to [Detroit] Lions 53 today.”

NFL Network insider Mike Garafolo followed up, commenting that “RB Bam Knight [signs from] the Lions’ practice squad up to their active roster with David Montgomery (thigh) dinged up.”

A former 1,000-yard rusher with the Chicago Bears in 2020, Montgomery opened the 2023 season as the lead-back in Detroit with rookie first rounder Jahmyr Gibbs hot on his tail. Knight should help carry the load on early downs for the Lions in Week 3 alongside Craig Reynolds, with Gibbs being featured on passing downs as he typically is.