Just how much do the Packers miss Nathaniel Hackett and Luke Getsy?

How much differently would the Packers' season have played out had Nathaniel Hackett and Luke Getsy not departed this offseason for bigger job opportunities?

Back in January, the Green Bay Packers saw two of their highest-ranking offensive assistants walk out the door. Nathaniel Hackett, the offensive coordinator overseeing the team's back-to-back-to-back 13-win seasons, left to accept the head-coaching position with the Denver Broncos. Getsy, the quarterbacks coach and passing-game coordinator, didn't have to travel quite so far as the NFC North-rival Chicago Bears hired him to run their offense under new head coach Matt Eberflus.

For certain, the early stages of Hackett and Getsy's post-Packers runs have gone less than ideally for either coach. Hackett committed multiple high-profile blunders on fourth downs in his first two games with the Broncos while Getsy's offenses have looked so anemic from a passing perspective that finding a statistic comp for the Bears involves evoking football played during the Reagan Administration.

And while both coaches deserve a significant portion of the blame for how their respective teams have performed under their watch, that doesn't mean the Packers haven't felt their absences.

During Hackett's three seasons in Green Bay, he held considerable influence over the red-zone offense, hence the unfortunate "gold zone" moniker derived from an Austin Powers movie. In two of his three years as offensive coordinator, the Packers ranked No. 1 in the NFC in red-zone touchdown rate (67.9% in 2019, 76.8% in 2020). Entering Week 7, the team ranks 16th in the NFL with a pedestrian 57.9%. Hackett doesn't deserve all the credit for those performances, but he played a critical role in the play design and selection.

Perhaps just as importantly, Hackett served as the de facto middleman between Aaron Rodgers and head coach Matt LaFleur. Rodgers regularly praised Hackett's approach to running the offensive meetings, once saying, "I hope he doesn't go anywhere. Unless I do."

By all indications, LaFleur and Rodgers have a strong relationship. Indeed, that bond played a key role in the two-time reigning MVP's decision to sign an extension with the Packers this offseason. But as the head coach, LaFleur can only devote so much time to a single player, even his star quarterback. Hackett became the missing connective tissue over the past three years. Now, that responsibility falls on Adam Stenavich, a coach with which Rodgers hasn't worked nearly as closely before 2022.

In Getsy, the Packers lost one of their most versatile young offensive minds whose responsibilities extended beyond his job title. Officially, the assistant handled the quarterback room during the past three seasons. However, Getsy built the game plan for third downs throughout that stretch and coordinated those efforts with wide-receivers coach Justin Vrable. Getsy's efforts helped Rodgers win his third and fourth career MVPs while Davante Adams earned back-to-back first-team All-Pro honors. Both credited Getsy for helping them.

While the Packers replaced Getsy with longtime Rodgers confidant Tom Clements, his focus doesn't extend nearly as far. Instead, Vrable has taken over as the passing-game coordinator while Clements simply serves as the quarterbacks coach. At least so far, neither has matched the results the team achieved under Getsy.

The prolonged offensive struggle the Packers have endured in 2022 begs the question: How much do the Packers miss Hackett and Getsy?