Nathaniel Hackett will bring new perspective to Jaguars run game

Not many expect a big change in the Jacksonville Jaguars offense in the weeks ahead, despite the firing of offensive coordinator Greg Olson and quarterbacks coach Nathaniel Hackett taking his place, as you’re not going to install an entirely new offense mid-season, but it seems Hackett has a plan for what he wants to shift the focus to. It’s no secret Bortles has been playing poorly this season and a big reason the team is losing games, but Hackett also recognizes he’s not getting a lot of help, especially in the run game. The run game was something that was supposed to be much improved this year, but in all honesty it might be worse than last season.

So how do you fix it?

“It’s never just one thing,” Hackett told reporters in his first meeting with the media since becoming the offensive coordinator, when asked about the struggles of the run game. “If it was, I think it’d be easy to hop right in there and say, ‘oh if we do this we’ll be good.’ It’s something that I now need to look at it from a different perspective.”

The perspective can be key, because previously Hackett wasn’t really focused on the run game or it’s struggles, because previously his job was working with Bortles and focusing on the pass game. The team has tried to run the stretch play all season and it simply doesn’t work, but they’ve also had a singular vision for that running game the past two years.

“A lot of the time I was working with Blake on the pass game and stuff like that so I really need to throw myself into the run game and that’s something that I’ve always loved,” Hackett continued. “I learned it from a very, very young age being around some of the very, very great running backs growing up as a kid that the quarterback’s best friend is the run game and I think if you can develop a run game that always can help you. But it has to be balanced, it goes both ways. I think that when you look at the whole thing it just hasn’t been successful and that’s why we have to take a good hard look and admit some things and really work on some things we can be good at.”

While I wouldn’t expect too much instant improvement from the Jaguars offense, a completely new voice in the meeting room and doing self-evaluation of the Jaguars running game could go a long way.