Former NFL head coaches find benefits in taking advisory roles with different teams

By Canadian Press on August 22, 2025.

GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — Former Denver Broncos head coach and New York Jets offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett is resetting his coaching career with an unfamiliar role in a familiar place.

Hackett, the Packers’ offensive coordinator from 2019-21, is back in Green Bay. But this time he’s working with Green Bay’s defense in an advisory capacity.

Packers head coach Matt LaFleur, who has used this strategy before, said Hackett would be in and out of Green Bay throughout the year. Longtime defensive assistant Robert Saleh advised Green Bay’s offense last year after he got fired as the Jets’ head coach midway through the season.

LaFleur remembered how a similar plan worked when he was Atlanta’s quarterbacks coach in 2016. That year, Raheem Morris started coaching the Falcons’ receivers after having spent his entire NFL career up to that point as a defensive assistant. Morris now is the Falcons’ head coach.

“I just think it’s a fresh perspective,” LaFleur said. “When you take a defensive guy and put them on offense and vice versa, an offensive guy on defense, it gives you a little different lens to see it through and talk through.”

By having coaches work on the opposite side of the ball from their traditional background, LaFleur has added a twist to a common NFL staffing strategy. Teams across the league have hired former head coaches or coordinators to positions that don’t necessarily rise to the ranks of position coaches or coordinators.

The teams making these moves add more head coaching experience to their staffs, while the ex-head coaches get a chance to stay in the league as they ponder their next step. For instance, after working with the Packers’ offense last year, Saleh has returned to his usual side of the ball as the San Francisco 49ers’ defensive coordinator.

Saleh said he provided a different perspective on the offense during his time in Green Bay by offering his thoughts on what might or might not work against a particular defense.

“I joke with Matt, I think it was more therapy for me than I was a help for him,” Saleh said.

New England Patriots coach Mike Vrabel said he benefited from spending the 2024 season as a consultant with the Cleveland Browns after the end of his six-year stint coaching the Tennessee Titans. Vrabel, who went 54-45 at Tennessee, was fired at the end of the 2023 season.

Vrabel said the experience helped him realize how much he missed the opportunity to lead his own team and put a staff together. It also enabled him to get his focus back on teaching and developing.

“Really enjoyed getting to know those players and teaching them and helping the staff, helping the young coaches,” Vrabel said during his introductory news conference with the Patriots. “It just reminded me of not forgetting all the small, little details that are critical in coaching and teaching.”

Staffs around the NFL feature ex-head coaches in a variety of different roles.

The 49ers’ current assistant head coach is former Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Gus Bradley, who was fired as the Indianapolis Colts’ defensive coordinator at the end of last season.

Having that extra experience on staff can prove particularly useful for a first-time head coach.

Tennessee’s Brian Callahan was preparing for the second season of his tenure when he added Mike McCoy to his staff as a senior offensive assistant this year. McCoy coached the San Diego Chargers from 2013-16 and spent six years as an NFL offensive coordinator, though he most recently was a quarterbacks coach for the Jaguars.

“For a guy that’s had the experiences that he’s had, been a head coach and all those things, and for him to come in and the role he’s in with the humility to take on the role and just want to help,” Callahan said. “He just loves football, wants to be around, and wants to lend a helping hand wherever he can help us, at the end of the day.”

When Dave Canales took over at Carolina last year, he brought in former head coaches Dom Capers as a senior defensive assistant and Jim Caldwell as a senior coaching advisor. Canales said it’s been invaluable to get their feedback on various situations that could come up on or off the field.

“I can go down and ask and say, ‘Hey, did you ever experience something like this? How did you handle it?'” Canales said. “And (I can) be able to take all that information and try to make the best decision possible.”

Yet, the Green Bay cases may be the most intriguing examples because the Packers had a defensive coach assisting the offense and now an offensive coach helping the defense.

Green Bay defensive tackle Kenny Clark said the Packers’ defense should benefit from Hackett’s presence. Clark said Hackett can explain how an offense might react to whatever a defense might try.

“As we all know, all these coaches know each other, a bunch of coaching trees and all that kind of stuff, so they all run a lot of the same stuff,” Clark said. “Just being able to bounce ideas off each other, just telling Haf (defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley) what they’d do in a situation on third-and-4 or second-and-10, how they might attack that situation, I think it helps.”

The move could help provide a reboot for Hackett, who lost his play-calling responsibilities with the Jets late in the 2024 season after lasting just 15 games as Denver’s head coach in 2023.

Saleh said he appreciated his brief time helping Green Bay’s offense last year.

“I’m, again, forever grateful for Matty for opening the door to his building and allowing me the opportunity to work there,” Saleh said. “Just because from a mental space, it was, like I said, more therapeutic than anything for me.”

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AP Pro Football Writers Josh Dubow and Teresa Walker and AP Sports Writers Will Graves and Steve Reed contributed to this report.

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Steve Megargee, The Associated Press