Nathaniel Hackett will not be the head coach of the Denver Broncos after this season. Well, that is, if the current front office has any sense.
Nathaniel Hackett has been terrible as a head coach and is on a short list of the worst head coaches in NFL history. Seriously.
There are going to be those that argue that Hackett is still in his first year and the team needs time to “adjust” to his strategy and style. They will argue that both Vance Joseph and Vic Fangio — terrible coaches in their own right — were given more than one season.
As bad as they both were, they look brilliant in comparison to Hackett.
Hackett will not be back in 2024 for a couple of reasons. For starters, he was brought in due to his offensive mind, one that helped Aaron Rodgers become a back-to-back league MVP. However, the Broncos are averaging the least amount of points per game since the 2000 Cleveland Browns.
He also seems wildly unprepared for the job. Joseph and Fangio each had issues with this as well and their teams just never seemed ready to play, but Hackett just doesn’t even seem like he belongs on the sideline. The fact that a month into the season, he had to hire someone to help him with game management, was a bad sign. Later, he gave up his play-calling duties. He is just not cut out to be a head coach.
Then there is the big reason, the one that is going to cost Hackett, and that is the fact that he and Russell Wilson are just a terrible combination. What he wants to do does not suit Wilson’s game and since the Broncos are basically stuck with Wilson, Hackett will be gone.
Broncos won’t fire Nathaniel Hackett during 2022 season
However, for those fans expecting that move to come any day, they will need to find a bit more patience. That is because the Broncos are going to give Hackett the rest of this season as the team’s head coach.
If the move was going to be made during the year, it would have happened. It absolutely would have come following the team’s pathetic display against the Carolina Panthers last week.
But it didn’t.
The team is not going to find a spark this year or really find much of anything to take into next year. The coaching staff will see an overhaul this offseason and an entirely new philosophy will come in. That will be next year.
This year, sadly, the team is just playing out the string. Essentially going through the motions. They may lose all of their games. The worst part about that is the worse they do, the better it is for the Seattle Seahawks.
This has been a complete waste of a season for the Broncos. But there is blame to be passed around, starting with general manager George Paton. To fire Hackett during the season would be punishing him for the mistakes of many. In addition, it would resolve none of the team’s issues immediately.
Hackett will be allowed to finish this year. Then, on Monday, January 9, the day after the regular season concludes, he will be thanked for his services and quickly given his pink slip.
The search for a coach in 2023 will be aimed at someone who can get the most out of whatever is left of Wilson.