Last week, Bleacher Report named each team’s biggest early season disappointment and gave that honor to head coach Nathaniel Hackett for the Broncos. The Broncos hiring Hackett during the offseason signaled the team heading towards what many across the NFL are now doing–bringing in a so called “offensive minded coach” to bring the offense to new heights.
Most of the elite coaches in the NFL today are offensive guys, and it’s clear that’s where the league is headed. After two tenures of older, defensive minded coaches, Denver decided it was time to try the offensive side of the ball. Hiring Nathaniel Hackett appeared to be a great move.
After all, he was the offensive coordinator during the prior three seasons in Green Bay, where Aaron Rodgers won back to back MVP awards in 2020 and 2021. He even struggled a bit in 2019 before taking off, so perhaps the same could happen with Russell Wilson.
However, according to Bleacher Report, the Denver Broncos’ head coach is the team’s biggest disappointment so far of the 2022 season. I think Hackett is mostly to blame for the Broncos 2-3 start, but Wilson deserves a chunk of it as well.
To be fair to Hackett, he was an unknown as a head coach. He’s never been one before this, so why were some of us thinking that he’d end up doing a great job? The hire was universally praised even though he had never coached a game as the head coach. On the flip side, Russell Wilson brought over 10 years of elite quarterbacking from the Seattle Seahawks, so most of us also expected him to simply continue his great play.
Perhaps Russell Wilson is to blame more than Hackett? Although, if you want to counter with the league high penalties, iffy play-calling at times, and regression of certain units, then Hackett might get most of the blame.
I do think the blame is shared, and perhaps Hackett should end up taking a bit more of it.