The Denver Broncos are completely atrocious on offense and something must be done to address that.
The Broncos hired an offensive-minded head coach this offseason, turning to Nathaniel Hackett, who had spent the past few years with the Green Bay Packers and Aaron Rodgers. After trading for Russell Wilson, it was assumed that the offense would explode.
That has not happened. In fact, the offense is easily worse than it was last season behind Teddy Bridgewater and Drew Lock.
The Broncos started Brett Rypien on Sunday in a loss to the New York Jets while Wilson nursed a hamstring injury. There was no change in the offense, for better or worse. That is a major development.
The fact that the offense wasn’t worse behind Rypien shows that it is clearly the coaching that is holding this team back and specifically, Hackett’s offensive play calls.
The play-calling has been frustrating, to say the least. Red-zone offense has been horrific, mostly because on short-yardage situations, Hackett has the quarterback line up in shotgun. In other critical situations, players are running routes short of the first down marker and getting stopped short, forcing the team to punt.
It’s just not an efficient system and Hackett is struggling mightily. The team should not turn the play-calling duties over to offensive coordinator Justin Outten as he has no experience calling plays.
But there is a coach on the staff who does and that would be quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator, Klint Kubiak. He is the son of former Broncos quarterback, offensive coordinator and head coach, Gary Kubiak.
Klint Kubiak was the offensive coordinator of the Minnesota Vikings last season and he could step into the role immediately. The team could then part ways with Outten as this offense is as bad as it gets.
That falls almost entirely on Hackett, but it feels like he has one foot out the door anyway at this point. The Broncos need to try something, anything, to give this team a pulse for the remainder of the season.
Klint Kubiak taking over the play-calling duties is an absolute must and it needs to happen as soon as possible but no later than the team’s bye week.