DECEMBER 4: Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports hears that an in-season firing is unlikely. Jones observes that Hackett has not lost the support of his locker room, and while he will need to win a few games down the stretch to have a chance to keep his job, the Broncos’ new ownership appears willing to give him that opportunity.
NOVEMBER 29: After the warning signs that emerged during Nathaniel Hackett‘s Week 1 outing, the first-year Broncos HC has not recovered. One-and-done rumors have engulfed him for several weeks. The Broncos enter Week 13 with one of the worst scoring offenses in recent NFL history.
The team is riding its second three-game losing streak, with this one including losses to the sub-.500 Raiders and Panthers, and is averaging 14.3 points per game. Although six more games remain, the Broncos continuing on this pace would group them with the 2018 Cardinals, 2016 Rams and 2012 Chiefs. No other team has averaged fewer 14.3 points per game over the past decade. These three organizations canned their head coaches — Steve Wilks, Jeff Fisher and Romeo Crennel, respectively — during or after those seasons.
This stunning season will almost certainly lead to Hackett’s ouster, and execs informed Jason La Canfora of the Washington Post it is likely Hackett will be canned before season’s end. This could give the Broncos a chance to evaluate Ejiro Evero as an interim coach, potentially with an eye on the first-time defensive coordinator sticking around beyond 2022.
The Broncos have Evero on their radar as a potential Hackett replacement, though it would be rather strange if the team that has underwhelmed to this degree went with a current staffer to replace Hackett. Evero and Hackett have been close since being college teammates 20-plus years ago, but the former has been a well-regarded assistant as well. Evero, 41, spent the past five seasons on Sean McVay‘s Rams staff and has helmed a Broncos defense that has kept the team in most of its games. Denver ranks third in total defense and points allowed.
Hackett has both brought in a game management assistant after several September gaffes — highlighted by the bizarre decision to settle for a 64-yard field goal in Week 1 — and turned over play-calling duties to quarterbacks coach Klint Kubiak. The Broncos have failed to score 17 points since making the latter change. The team, which has been without several offensive starters in recent weeks, also leads the league in penalties.
While 13 teams this century have fired a coach after one season, only the Jaguars last year axed their first-year HC during the season. (Bobby Petrino did not finish his first Falcons campaign, but that situation involved the former college coach accepting an Arkansas offer in December 2007.) Jacksonville fired Urban Meyer on Dec. 16, 2021, 13 games into his season. It would be strange to see Hackett grouped with Meyer, whose scandal-filled Jags tenure led to the early ouster, but the Broncos traded a bounty for Russell Wilson and have somehow declined considerably on offense.
Denver had Kevin O’Connell and Dan Quinn as its other HC finalists this year, and La Canfora adds GM George Paton‘s ties to Quinn may keep him in the mix. Quinn was an early frontrunner for the Denver HC post, but Hackett emerged instead. It would be interesting to see if the Cowboys DC would go through another interview process with a team that passed on him so recently. But it is a near-certainty at this point another Broncos coaching search — under new ownership — will commence in 2023.
Gotta be an awkward situation for Evero, teaming up with his friend and then having their stock go in different directions as drastically as possible.
they should’ve fired him like week 4..
everyone witnessed him week 1
Witness Me!!!
Giving a HC job to a guy whose main (only?) qualification is that he briefly coached ONE guy who was already on a HOF path…
Has worked out predictably.
I agree.. they should’ve went with Josh McCown
Yes
He can’t help it, 60 minutes is just not enough time to mount an effective offense.
Many people want to blame Hackett, and he has his share of the blame, but let’s not forget who put Hackett in place.
Put in place to try and get Rodgers which failed, or Adams which failed, all knowing he wasn’t head coach material.
Say what you will about Rodgers but Rodgers made Hackett just like he made McCarthy and it shows.
The real person to blame the most are the people who thought Hackett was HC material.
McCarthy hasn’t done a bad job with Dallas but obviously will need to win some meaningful games to solidify his position there. As far as Hackett goes, I just don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel like I do with McDaniels and the Raiders. With the Raiders we know what’s wrong and only time will tell if they’re able to get the defense and offensive line in shape to really contend. With Hackett and the Broncos it just seems like so much more is off and it’s hard to put a finger on what it is specifically. It just all looks off lol.
Mccarthy was rumored to be out as early as last year. Between the OC, DC, and Payton rumors I don’t have much confidence in him.
Mccarthy does well in spite of himself. He really got too comfy in GB and it showed. Taking massages on Monday during practices.
He will always play himself into a loss when it counts.
Paton has drafted very well in Denver, and had a very strong first year. Unfortunately, that was followed by a very negative offseason this past year. I can’t blame him for swinging for Rodgers, but there was no way that anyone expected Hackett (and Wilson) to be THIS bad. Even the most gloomy of predictions did not account for how abject a failure that this has been. In my opinion, this is the worst offense I have ever seen, including Chicago’s pre-Cutler offenses, David Carr’s sackfest, Denver’s Tebow years, and the difficult Kansas City years before Andy Reid. I’m not going way back, but those are recent examples.
A HoF quarterback should let his mind be his greatest strength, and it’s by far Wilson’s weakest right now. The coach, who is supposed to help in those scenarios, has made it worse by allowing him free reign. No matter how shaky Rypien potentially could be as a backup, Hackett needed to show initiative there at least. Problems don’t seem to be handled in Denver, they reoccur, which is the most glaring indicator of Hackett’s ineptitude. It does not feel good to pile on a person, let alone a rookie coach in his first year, but the product is unwatchable, let alone unacceptable. I hold Hackett and Wilson responsible more than Paton, who had reasonable expectations of some level of success with this team he’s put together.
There was a lot of talk about how well regarded Paton was before he was hired. I always wonder what that kind of praise is based on. But the NFL is the most shameless good ole boy network on the planet. Who you know has always been WAY more important than what you know.
You’re not wrong about the overlying problem in NFL hiring, but Paton’s hire is a weird place to bring it up. He has a long resume as a personnel executive, he’s held jobs for long periods of time, and he’s been hired by at least one person (Rick Spielman, who’s generally well regarded) multiple times, which tends to speak well of someone in any profession.
I agree, Paton has an extensive history and sound reputation. However, does that prove he’s good at his job? I’m sure there are several examples of people who held their jobs for a long time in spite of having little qualification. Rich Kotite was well regarded until he wasn’t.
Rich Kotite is a doozy of a comparison to drop on someone. I more meant that your point about cronyism is well placed on the league in general, but people around the league had a great deal of time to encounter Paton as a talent evaluator, communicator, colleague, etc. The guy certainly didn’t build his rep strictly on the old boy network, and he’s drafted well since he arrived. One disastrous trade/extension and one disastrous hire might be enough to tank his Broncos tenure, but his hire in the first place wasn’t unjustified.
You may be completely right. I could never claim to know otherwise since I’ve never met any of the people involved and I’m not privy to any inside information regarding NFL front office types. I’m not directly comparing Paton to Kotitie, I’m just using Kotite as an example of someone everyone considered to be competent until he was in the spotlight.
The NFL is a great place to witness the Peter Principle. But I think it’s even easier for that to happen with coaches than GMs.
Do we not remember the articles on why Seattle was willing to deal Wilson? They saw his decline I wanna say a year or 2 starting.. the broncos made a huge mistake trading so much for him and paying him what they did. Blame the HC all you want, Wilson is no longer a top tier QB yet is being paid like one. The injuries don’t help, but I still think like Brady n Rodgers his best days are behind him.
The decline was more due to Wilson’s insistence on having more say in the offense, and only partly due to his reluctance to use his legs. He can still throw. Wilson’s ineffectiveness this year is mostly due to decision-making failures and his lack of cohesion with his teammates-exacerbated by his coach’s mindnumbingly obtuse decision to not play any of them together in the preseason.
Seattle definitely could have done better in terms of offensive line investment (Wilson is still a tough QB to block for, which we shouldn’t forget) over the years, and definitely could have allowed Wilson a bit more room in offensive decisions. That said, Wilson has definitely also proven that he is far from ready to take on all that responsibility. Only a few quarterbacks have been able to do that, and none of them began doing so immediately after playing in a more limited environment for so long (of all of them, Manning was the only one probably to do so immediately, and that came with a turnover prone lesson his first year, when he was also much younger than Wilson). And absolutely none of them did so with a shy cardboard cutout for a head coach.
Wilson needs to resign himself to playing within a system again until he learns it well enough to take control, and has enough experience and cohesion in it to be patient on the field instead of trying to prove that he’s Superman every down. He grew up in a system designed to protect the quarterback from too much responsibility, and though it should given him more as he grew, he needs to realize he can’t do it all himself. He’s not ready, at least not right now, to take control of all of it. Hackett is not strong enough or disciplined enough to hold him to that.
Did Wilson just suddenly fall off a cliff? I know new system, new coach, teammates, injuries and all, but wtf is going on with him. Based on his past and even recent play (prior to this year) there’s no way he should be this bad…and yet he is. There has to be more to it. He finally gets his chance to cook and he can’t even make a sandwich.
Agreed.
How could anyone be surprised at the mess in Denver? Paton, Fangio, Hackett et al all knew that what they were getting themselves into and with the Bowlen clan fighting amongst themselves it was not a good situation. Then new ownership comes in and more upheaval occurs. The Broncos organization will eventually get itself straightened away but none of the current stage performers will be around when that happens.
I don’t think anything will be gained by firing Hackett. For consistency I believe the organization should give him another year and allow Wilson to get comfortable in the system and tweak it to his strengths.
Unless the plan is to bring in Shannon Sharpe or Mark Schlereth as an intern Head Coach.
Off topic, and I’ve mentioned this before but I truly hope that the Broncos brain trust are at least kicking the tires and doing their due diligence on Nathan Rourke of the CFL. He comes cheap and is a free agent and has all the tools you want in a QB. His numbers are unbelievable. I know it’s the CFL but his completion %, arm strength and mobility are top shelf. He is young but mature beyond his age. Please Broncos, look into him.
Totally. They’ve got to do something to spark a fire under Russell Wilson’s chair. They’re not drafting they’re way out of this dumpster.
They should be looking into hiring everyone from Gardner Minshew to Kyle Sloter.
They should be giving serious consideration to Ryan Leaf at this stage…
You don’t lose anything by doing so, and with a younger backup in Rypien, you may as well. Wilson should be benched, I think, at least for the last few weeks of the season after Hackett is fired. At the very least, he can (or should) take the time to step away and reset himself as he needs to do, before taking on another season.
That said, I don’t think that Denver is focused on new additions at the moment. My opinion is that everyone is so focused on their job status that scouting a Canadian player is way out of their scope of focus right now. And Minshew is, or should have been in my opinion, the answer to a lot of teams’ questions (cough the Jets) in the short term. Possibly even the long term, who knows.
Fire him or not, it doesn’t matter.
With the amount of injuries the Broncos have Bill Belichick would have a hard time getting anything out of Wilson.
Patrick
Jeudy
Kamler
Javonte Williams
Gordon (exploded)
Bolles
…it then bleeds into the entire O-Line.
Match that with a coach that can’t manage a game and has off-loaded play-calling duties with a QB that can’t read the field…
I can’t even get mad at the coach for coaching bad…he’s not even coaching!
……. meanwhile, down the street sits Mike at a steakhouse.
But he dropped the steak on the floor again…
Even if they get rid of Hackett as they should, they’ll still have the Russell Wilson problem.
The owner should fire everybody except the Defensive Coordinator.
I can get the door!
Give Hackett a break….Wilson is a nut case and his offensive roster leaves a lot to be desired,…another year with a revamped roster….then evaluate him
Give up on a coach after 1 year SMH
Tom Landry, Chuck Noll, Bill Walsh had crappy seasons in their first year. You didn’t see those coaches getting fired. You fans in Colorado are pathetic
You also didn’t see those coaches under an internet and social media microscope 24/7 as is the case nowadays. Coaching is a much tougher gig now.
Not really. All they have to do is stay away from social media and put blinders on and just go about their business. Jagaloons in sport media and fair weather fans have the problem with coaches
No one hates the media more than Belichick but even he can’t ignore it without being fined by Goodell. Coaches today can’t fart without it being analyzed. An even tougher challenge for them is overseeing bloated staffs that are modeled after government bureaucracies.
Did they have crappy seasons WHILE showing they have no clue what they are doing OR did they just have crappy seasons because teams that hire new coaches usually aren’t juggernauts?
Nathaniel Hackett is a product of nepotism. His father was an offensive coordinator, a Bill Walsh disciple. Nathaniel Hackett might be a.decent coordinator but he’s in way over his head. Being a head coach isn’t easy. Young HC’s need to prove yourself and he hasn’t.
He’s got a Russell Wilson problem, true, but that speaks to the difference between Hackett and Pete Carroll.
They clearly paid Wilson way before they needed too or should have…..
I’m sure am thankful Von Miller went to the Bills. I’d hate for that guy to have to suffer through this crap.
Everybody (sans a few know-it-alls) felt that Russell Wilson was going to usher in a new era of football for the Broncos. Even he did. It’s unprecedented. Sure props to Seattle for playing a better poker hand, but this is still utterly unprecedented. Even Seattle didn’t know he was THAT bad. If he was stuck in Seattle another year I doubt his performance would’ve tanked as much. Just igniting him with Hackett turned out to be a total meltdown. I also don’t fault Paton other than giving Russell extra money before playing. The fact that the coach turned out his own circus act to this point it’s almost voodoo, cross-eyed forest from the trees. Like at this point the idea of quality football is a mirage in Denver awaiting another black cat and an injury update. People in the staff probably get queasy even looking at a white board when they enter the room. LOL
Unbelievable, like a flaming car crash on a holiday parade float live on ESPN.
The Colorado Avalanche and Denver Nuggets provide a reasonable distraction. Be thankful your not in Detroit.
That is True. Though Detroit is one of the best places for food all kinds of food. Tubby’s sounds awesome right about now.
“No, come on…you gotta give the guy another year to prove himself.” – Chiefs, Raiders and Chargers fans
Okay, it’s official. I hate the word ‘cook’.
Every time I say that word I just want my face to shrivel into my body and roll away into a distant horizon where somebody can pick me up and throw me for a touchdown in the 2nd half.
He should have let “Russ cook” so that he could ride a Bronco. I think if Russ holds the ball for a couple more seconds, he could really start cooking.
Broncos Country. Let’s Ride!