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.”
AP Pro Football Writers Josh Dubow and Teresa Walker and AP Sports Writers Will Graves and Steve Reed contributed to this report.
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL
FILE - Cleveland Browns coaching and personnel consultant Mike Vrabel, left, stands on the field before an NFL preseason football game against the Green Bay Packers, Aug. 10, 2024, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/David Richard, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Most American presidents aspire to the kind of greatness that prompts future generations to name important things in their honor.
Donald Trump isn't leaving it to future generations.
As the first year of his second term wraps up, his Republican administration and allies have put his name on the U.S. Institute of Peace, the Kennedy Center performing arts venue and a new class of battleships that's yet to be built.
That’s on top of the “Trump Accounts” for tax-deferred investments, the TrumpRx government website soon to offer direct sales of prescription drugs, the “Trump Gold Card” visa that costs at least $1 million and the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity, a transit corridor included in a deal his administration brokered between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
On Friday, he attended a ceremony at his Florida home to mark the renaming of a 4-mile (6-kilometer) stretch of road from the airport to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach as President Donald J. Trump Boulevard.
“That’s a very important stretch," Trump said as he thanked local officials for the dedication.
“When people see that the beautiful sign is all lit up nice at night and it says ‘Donald J. Trump Boulevard,’ they’ll be filled with pride. Just pride," Trump said. “Not in me. Pride in our country.”
It’s unprecedented for a sitting president to embrace tributes of that number and scale, especially those proffered by members of his administration. And while past sitting presidents have typically been honored by local officials naming schools and roads after them, it's exceedingly rare for airports, federal buildings, warships or other government assets to be named for someone still in power.
“At no previous time in history have we consistently named things after a president who was still in office,” said Jeffrey Engel, the David Gergen Director of the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. “One might even extend that to say a president who is still alive. Those kind of memorializations are supposed to be just that — memorials to the passing hero.”
White House spokeswoman Liz Huston said the TrumpRx website linked to the president's deals to lower the price of some prescription drugs, along with “overdue upgrades of national landmarks, lasting peace deals, and wealth-creation accounts for children are historic initiatives that would not have been possible without President Trump’s bold leadership.”
"The Administration’s focus isn’t on smart branding, but delivering on President Trump’s goal of Making America Great Again," Huston said.
The White House pointed out that the nation's capital was named after President George Washington and the Hoover Dam was named after President Herbert Hoover while each was serving as president.
For Trump, it’s a continuation of the way he first etched his place onto the American consciousness, becoming famous as a real estate developer who affixed his name in big gold letters on luxury buildings and hotels, a casino and assorted products like neckties, wine and steaks.
As he ran for president in 2024, the candidate rolled out Trump-branded business ventures for watches, fragrances, Bibles and sneakers — including golden high tops priced at $799. After taking office again last year, Trump's businesses launched a Trump Mobile phone company, with plans to unveil a gold-colored smartphone and a cryptocurrency memecoin named $TRUMP.
That’s not to be confused with plans for a physical, government-issued Trump coin that U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach said the U.S. Mint is planning.
Trump has also reportedly told the owners of Washington’s NFL team that he would like his name on the Commanders’ new stadium. The team’s ownership group, which has the naming rights, has not commented on the idea. But a White House spokeswoman in November called the proposed name “beautiful” and said Trump made the rebuilding of the stadium possible.
The addition of Trump’s name to the Kennedy Center in December so outraged independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont that he introduced legislation this week to ban the naming or renaming of any federal building or land after a sitting president — a ban that would retroactively apply to the Kennedy Center and Institute of Peace.
“I think he is a narcissist who likes to see his name up there. If he owns a hotel, that’s his business,” Sanders said in an interview. “But he doesn’t own federal buildings.”
Sanders likened Trump's penchant for putting his name on government buildings and more to the actions of authoritarian leaders throughout history.
“If the American people want to name buildings after a president who is deceased, that’s fine. That’s what we do,” Sanders said. “But to use federal buildings to enhance your own position very much sounds like the ‘Great Leader’ mentality of North Korea, and that is not something that I think the American people want.”
Although some of the naming has been suggested by others, the president has made clear he’s pleased with the tributes.
Three months after the announcement of the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity, a name the White House says was proposed by Armenian officials, the president gushed about it at a White House dinner.
“It’s such a beautiful thing, they named it after me. I really appreciate it. It’s actually a big deal,” he told a group of Central Asian leaders.
Engel, the presidential historian, said the practice can send a signal to people "that the easiest way to get access and favor from the president is to play to his ego and give him something or name something after him.”
Some of the proposals for honoring Trump include legislation in Congress from New York Republican Rep. Claudia Tenney that would designate June 14 as “Trump’s Birthday and Flag Day," placing the president with the likes of Martin Luther King Jr., George Washington and Jesus Christ, whose birthdays are recognized as national holidays.
Florida Republican Rep. Greg Steube has introduced legislation that calls for the Washington-area rapid transit system, known as the Metro, to be renamed the “Trump Train.” North Carolina Republican Rep. Addison McDowell has introduced legislation to rename Washington Dulles International Airport as Donald J. Trump International Airport.
McDowell said it makes sense to give Dulles a new name since Trump has already announced plans to revamp the airport, which currently is a tribute to former Secretary of State John Foster Dulles.
The congressman said he wanted to honor Trump because he feels the president has been a champion for combating the scourge of fentanyl, a personal issue for McDowell after his brother’s overdose death. But he also cited Trump’s efforts to strike peace deals all over the world and called him “one of the most consequential presidents ever.”
“I think that’s somebody that deserves to be honored, whether they’re still the president or whether they’re not," he said.
More efforts are underway in Florida, Trump’s adopted home.
Republican state lawmaker Meg Weinberger said she is working on an effort to rename Palm Beach International Airport as Donald J. Trump International Airport, a potential point of confusion with the Dulles effort.
The boulevard dedicated to Trump on Friday is not the first Florida asphalt to herald Trump upon his return to the White House.
In the south Florida city of Hialeah, officials in December 2024 renamed a street there as President Donald J. Trump Avenue.
Trump, speaking at a Miami business conference the next month, called it a “great honor” and said he loved the mayor for it.
“Anybody that names a boulevard after me, I like,” he said.
He added a few moments later: “A lot of people come back from Hialeah, they say, ‘They just named a road after you.' I say, ‘That’s OK.’ It’s a beginning, right? It’s a start.”
Supporters wave flags as President Donald Trump motorcades through West Palm Beach, Fla., along Southern Boulevard, the stretch of road being dedicated to him, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Attendees wait for President Donald Trump to arrive at a dedication ceremony for a portion of Southern Boulevard, which the Town of Palm Beach Council recently voted to rename,"President Donald J. Trump Boulevard," Friday, Jan. 16, 2026, at his Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
FILE - A sign for the Rose Garden is seen near the Presidential Walk of Fame on the Colonnade at the White House, Jan. 13, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)
FILE - President Donald Trump speaks with reporters as a flag pole is installed on the South Lawn of the White House, June 18, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
FILE - Workers add President Donald Trump's name to the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, after a Trump-appointed board voted to rename the institution, in Washington, Dec. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
FILE - A poster showing the Trump Gold Card is seen as President Donald Trump signs executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House, Sept. 19, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, file)
