League executives are starting to wonder how long the Broncos will tolerate Nathaniel Hackett‘s growing pains. Jason La Canfora of the Washington Post spoke with NFL executives, evaluators, and coaches, with many “paint[ing] a bleak picture” of Denver’s outlook with Hackett at the helm. The head coach’s “ability to survive his first season on the job” is being discussed around the NFL, per La Canfora.
[RELATED: Which Head Coach Will Be Fired First In 2022?]
Many of the sources attribute Denver’s coaching issues to inexperience. One anonymous GM went as far as to wonder if GM George Paton may be the one to pull the plug. The team’s new ownership wasn’t responsible for hiring the current head coach/general manage pairing, and if Paton wants to save his own job, he may look to admit his mistake sooner than later.
“I hate to say it, because it’s only six weeks,” the anonymous GM told La Canfora, “but [Paton] needs to start separating himself from the coach. I like George a lot, and that’s what my advice to him would be. Keep trying to give [Hackett] help, if he’ll take it, but you also may have to be willing to admit it was a mistake far sooner than you ever imagined. This owner didn’t hire either of them. You have to be careful how hard you fight to prove this can work, because it’s been a disaster so far. And if you aren’t careful, you’re going to get fired, too.”
Before firing Hackett, there’s a chance that the organization could try to remedy the situation. Some of the sources suggested bringing in an outside consultant, with many pointing to the inexperience of the coaching staff. As La Canfora notes, Dom Capers and Jerry Rosburg are the lone experienced coaches on the staff, and the writer even suggests that the team could look to bring in Gary Kubiak as an adviser or even as interim head coach. Kubiak’s son, Klint Kubiak, is the team’s quarterbacks coach.
Still, no matter how much experience the Broncos add to the coaching staff, it still might not be enough. One executive told La Canfora that Hackett doesn’t look like he’s ready to be a head coach.
“Unless something changes quickly, I don’t think he gets through the year,” the executive said. “It looks too big for him. It looks too fast for him. The red-zone play-calling has been awful. I don’t see enough adjustments being made.”
Of course, part of the team’s issues could also be attributed to quarterback Russell Wilson, who also drew criticism from the personnel that was polled by La Canfora. Even with Wilson’s underwhelming play, many still believe he isn’t being put in a position to succeed, with La Canfora pointing to the team’s lack of RPOs and motion.
“Some of that is on the quarterback, certainly,” a GM said, “but they don’t seem to have a lot of ideas when the field gets tight, and I don’t think they have the right people in that building now to fix it.”
This is just silly. The dude is 1/3 or his way into his first season. It’s very possible he won’t be a good coach and was a bad hire, but to speculate this quickly doesn’t seem right.
Given how poor DEN looks, I think the speculation is fair.
9 times out of 10 I would agree bigeasye, but reigning in Wilson would seem to be the team’s best chance to improve his play. Hackett, as an offensive coach, should be able to do that. It’s not so much that he cannot design plays or even the offense’s struggles that are concerning. It is the types of struggles that they have.
The play clock is always out, which is a sure sign of disorganization. The playcalls look disorganized. Wilson seems to do a lot of organizing at the LoS, and the plays seem to fail afterward (an incomplete deep ball being much of that). The timeouts seem illogical or wasted (such as using all three with the majority of a large minority of time left in a quarter). There was the decision to not play any of the veterans in the preseason, despite them learning a new offense and being new to each other. These are all coaching errors that can be fixed by the coach himself. Those errors can be corrected or just improved easily and certainly after a few games.
Hackett was hired for Rodgers, I get that, but he does not look like he has charge of the team. That’s worse than looking bad, which time and roster upgrades could fix.
Paton is proven he needs to go also. 2 Head Coaches 2 failed head coaches. Also that clown for the Chargers. Wow how horrible is he. They are wasting all of Herbert’s talents with Staley. Then he stand up and acts like he is smarter than any one in the room. You have to put in the time to be Belicheat Arrogant and this dude isn’t Belicheat.
Well, I’d say that retaining Fangio would have been a much better choice for the strategy of acquiring a veteran QB. Paton did not hire Fangio, though, so he can’t be blamed for that. I don’t think that he’s done a bad job overall, though the Hackett/Rodgers plan obviously didn’t work out and I’m waiting to see how the Gregory deal turns out. But that’s my opinion.
It’s unfortunate but we live in an era of What have you done for me lately. Some Fans and media just don’t get it. smh
Get what? You are paid to win in the NFL.
To give up on a coach after what???? 5 games? Lmao Again SMH
Hackett is a hack
He’s an offensive-minded coach, and the offense has been a disorganized mess and almost an unmitigated disaster this far. You don’t normally see job security whispers this quickly, but it seems warranted.
Wilson has a habit of getting people fired, thus I wouldn’t be surprised if Hackett falls – as then Russ will get to choose his own guy.
Fire him, and take Wilson with him, terrible hire and the Wilson contract is a killer.
Terrible idea to get rid of Wilson. He has a guaranteed salary that Denver would have to eat, around 100 million. Your reasoning tells us that you would rather have ANOTHER new QB trying to learn ANOTHER new system? That would guarantee that Denver be set back ANOTHER 2 years. With Wilson guaranteed that money, it leaves no room to bring in ANOTHER QB. It’s all about doing the math. Wilson will be fine. He just needs (A.) a better coach, or, (B.) Hackett needs to let Wilson play like Wilson. He needs to stop forcing Wilson to play as a typical pocket passing type QB. Roll him out more. More bootlegs. Plus, we need to get healthy. We lead the league in IR players. We are 2nd worse in penalties. These are both coaching AND player mental errors. No discipline.
When you can’t even complete dump off passes to your rb in the flat you are the problem. Hackett is awful but Wilson is no better. Get rid of them both. Well Wilson isn’t possible no team would touch him
Wilson thinks he’s all that and a bag of chips. He honestly thinks he’s as good as anyone playing and has said he wants to play well into his 40’s. I don’t like him because he basically threw Pete Carroll under the bus last year by forcing the hawks hand by trading him.
If you’re a Seahawks fan you should be really happy that happened. They fleeced the Broncos in that trade, funny Wilson’s stats have been declining the last few years how did the Broncos not see it, and then on top of it give him that contract??
Pete Carroll knows when to get rid of guys. This is a perfect example of him taking candy from a baby. Denver (Paton) fell for it. Good for Seattle!
To be fair, Carroll also doesn’t know very well how to acquire replacements-or if he does, he hasn’t shown it.
Agreed. Geno Smith is having a real turnaround season so far, but what’s the long-term plan? The offense isn’t quite good enough to compete with the elites of the NFL, while the defense is abysmal. Regardless of whether or not they want to compete right now, they need to improve their draft record
Smith is playing at a higher level than he ever has. I agree with what you said in its entirety. To add to that, the defense (supposedly Carroll’s strong suit) has still been missing pieces at several position that haven’t been boosted since the LoB years. The solid corner that they had in Shaq Griffin is now in Jacksonville. Brooks may end up being a long term player for them, but the carousel at edge rusher and linebacker has been concerning.
Of course, if I were Seattle, I’d have probably moved Adams to linebacker a while ago. I know their scheme is nearly opposite of what he played in New York, but his coverage ratings absolutely plummeted off a sheer cliff when he went to Seattle (a trade that Carroll most certainly did not fleece anyone in).
You can’t say it’s his fault Wilson has played like garbage. If Wilson has played like he usually does this talk wouldn’t be happening. Criticizing him for not knowing how to manage the clock though is fair.
Man, Urban Meyer had to put a terrible product on the field AND be loathsome off the field to get ousted so fast. A testament to how awful the Broncos look. At least the defense has acquitted itself.
They won’t be contending for the Super Bowl anyway so keep this poop show going all the way to another top 5 pick. Being in the middle of the pack tends to keep you in the middle.
Seahawks have Bronco’s 1st and 2nd pick, so this is not a solution.
He got the job because they thought He would bring Rodgers. He showing like lot of patriots assistants. It is the players making coaches succeed not other way.
That’s a pretty broad generalization; we’ve seen plenty of instances where the opposite is true.
Case in point, Jared Goff with Jeff Fisher versus Sean McVay
I’m just wondering if I’m the only person who gets annoyed when someone like a GM hides behind anonymity to launch a character assassination of someone else. Apparently cheap shots aren’t restricted to just players.
Overrated QB & a deer in the headlights HC, what could go wrong?