Broncos Rumors

After a flurry of managerial issues — headlined by a Week 1 snafu that produced a bizarre 64-yard field goal attempt — nearly led the Broncos to 0-2, they made an in-season addition to their coaching staff. Nathaniel Hackett bringing Jerry Rosburg out of retirement to aid with game management helped Denver in Week 3.

Hackett said he worked with GM George Paton and assistant GM Darren Mougey to find solutions to the issues plaguing him on the managerial front to start his HC career. Hackett called Rosburg, whom he had not previously worked with, to see if he would come out of retirement to help the Broncos, Jeff Legwold of ESPN.com notes.

“For me, I felt empowered that I was able to make a decision. Hey, let’s fix it. I’m the leader of the team. Let’s do it,” Hackett said of the hire, via NBC Sports’ Peter King. “This was the first time, the past two games, that I felt I was hurting my team. Did I have enough info? I don’t know. But I knew the setup wasn’t right. I needed help to make the tough decision.”

Calling the decision to add Rosburg “difficult,” Hackett said (via King) he brought the 66-year-old retiree to the Broncos’ facility last week and introduced him to the team days before the game against the 49ers. Indicating to his players that he would ask them to take a critical look at themselves for mistakes they make, Hackett said he did the same. With Hackett not initially planning to add an assistant and having not worked with Rosburg previously, it is worth speculating if the Broncos’ front office pushed the move.

“Jerry was great,’’ Hackett said, via Legwold. “We had been evaluating everything on how we were managing things up to that point. I wanted to be sure I was able to be an efficient play-caller for Russell [Wilson] and the offense. … For me as a coach, all coaches, we want to grow … he’s a guy with a ton of experience that’s run game management before. And after talking with him, he was all for it, excited about it.”

From fourth-down decisions to challenges, Rosburg advised Hackett during Denver’s Week 3 win. The Broncos lost both the challenges Hackett made, but the team’s situational problems largely receded compared to the avalanche of scrutiny Weeks 1 and 2 brought. Denver doubled its delay-of-game penalties from last season in just two games, being whistled for this infraction four times, and incurred 25 penalties — including six false-start violations — against the Seahawks and Texans. The Broncos were also the 21st century’s first team to start 0-for-6 in red zone touchdown opportunities.

Hackett’s ignominious moments — the Seattle field goal choice and Broncos fans counting down the play clock against Houston — have defined his early tenure, and Wilson has struggled adjusting to the former Packers OC’s scheme. Denver’s defense, which ranks as a top-three unit in yards and points allowed, has played a key role in helping the team through its early offensive and managerial issues. The team settling down on the management front does represent a positive early-season development for Hackett’s operation, which also features first-timers at OC (Justin Outten) and DC (Ejiro Evero).

The first two regular season games of Nathaniel Hackett‘s head coaching career have not gone particularly smoothly. Hackett’s Broncos suffered an upset defeat at the hands of the Seahawks in Week 1, and while Denver squeezed out a 16-9 win over the Texans in Week 2, the victory had its share of troubling moments.

Hackett has been widely blamed for the Seattle loss. With the Broncos trailing 17-16 in the game’s waning moments, Hackett had to choose between letting quarterback Russell Wilson attempt to convert a fourth-and-five and to continue driving into comfortable field goal range, or to let kicker Brandon McManus attempt a 64-yard FG for the win. Hackett chose the latter option, McManus’ kick was unsuccessful, and the second-guessing began in earnest.

Of course, that decision is not the only reason the Broncos, who saw two different running backs fumble the ball at the Seahawks’ one-yard line on two different drives, lost that contest. However, Hackett did concede after the fact that he made the wrong choice, and his club’s 25 accepted penalties are the most in the league over the first two games of the 2022 campaign. That figure includes four delay-of-game infractions, and a general lack of organization has led to multiple unnecessary timeouts.

To that end, the team has hired longtime NFL coach Jerry Rosburg, 9News’ Mike Klis reports. Adam Schefter of ESPN.com adds (via Twitter) that Rosburg, who will operate under the title of Senior Assistant, has spent the week in Denver and will be in the Broncos’ coaching booth for the team’s Week 3 matchup with the 49ers. Rosburg will assist in gameday operations and decisions.

Earlier this week, Hackett indicated the team would have “good answers moving forward,” but as Jeff Legwold of ESPN.com writes, the rookie HC was not initially planning to add an assistant. It is unclear exactly what convinced Hackett to change his mind, though having another veteran presence who will be specifically tasked with in-game procedure should be a welcome development for Broncos fans.

Rosburg, 66, began his coaching career as the secondary coach for Boston College in 1997. He eventually became the special teams coach for the Browns, Falcons, and Ravens, spending the 2008-18 seasons in Baltimore before announcing his retirement in March 2019. He earned a championship ring with the Ravens, whose Super Bowl XLVII victory featured a key piece of special teams/game management strategy.

Rosburg returns to the NFL on the coaching staff of a team that has a championship-caliber roster but that has some wrinkles to iron out.