Over the last 40 years, the Denver Broncos have the 5th-best winning percentage out of any team in the NFL behind the New England Patriots, Pittsburgh Steelers, San Francisco 49ers, and Green Bay Packers. Prior to the 2017-2022 seasons, the Broncos were even higher on that list and have been one of the most successful franchises in NFL history with three Super Bowl victories. Only the Patriots have more Super Bowl appearances (11) than the Broncos, who are tied for the second-most at eight.
Needless to say, finding much negative to say about the Broncos outside of this really poor stretch of play since 2017 is difficult to do. You really have to go back to the beginning of the franchise's history which is mostly inconsequential to anyone currently part of the fan base. Shoutout to any fans of the Broncos who have been rooting since 1960.
Most of the franchise's worst stretches of play have come over the last 15 or so years, and it's within that timeframe that I think we can find the three worst head coaches in franchise history.
3 worst head coaches in Denver Broncos history
1. Vance Joseph (2017-18)
Let me just preface this by saying that I actually think Vance Joseph is a really good football coach and sometimes as an NFL head coach, you get handed a really raw deal. But you never know when you're going to get your opportunity, and you don't know when it's going to come again, so it's really tough to sit here and say the chance he got with the Broncos in 2017 was a bad opportunity at all.
At the time, the Broncos were just in their second season removed from winning a Super Bowl. They hadn't had a losing season since 2010. The Broncos gig in 2017 was a pretty favorable one all things considered, but Vance inherited a team that was also trying to break in young QB Paxton Lynch. That wasn't his fault.
The Broncos went 11-21 in two seasons under Vance Joseph. There was some thought that he could be fired after his first season with the team in 2017 but John Elway stuck with him and got him veteran QB Case Keenum in 2018. Another year finishing as one of the 10 worst teams in football resulted in Joseph being fired.
But really, the biggest issue here was the QB position, which wasn't Vance Joseph's fault. Not completely, anyway. Joseph was playing the hand he was dealt. Most players who played for him seem to still like him and Joseph is now back in Denver as the defensive coordinator for 2023.
The real issue to take with this move is not with Vance Joseph, but likely with John Elway or whoever put the kibosh on hiring Kyle Shanahan in 2017. Shanahan wanted to carry on his father's legacy in Denver and there have been rumors about former Broncos CEO Joe Ellis perhaps saying "no" to Shanahan coaching the Broncos given some apparent friction between he and legendary former Broncos HC Mike Shanahan.
Whoever was at fault for that, hiring Kyle Shanahan in 2017 was such a no-brainer for the Denver Broncos and they didn't do it. It is one of the worst mistakes in franchise history as far as I'm concerned and again -- that's not Vance Joseph's fault. But the team's two seasons under Joseph are two of the worst in franchise history, landing him on this list.
Denver Broncos worst head coaches in team history
2. Josh McDaniels (2009-2010)
The Denver Broncos started off the Josh McDaniels era in 2009 in impressive fashion. Even after a controversial offseason, the Broncos started off the 2009 season 6-0 including some shocking wins against the Bengals in Week 1 and in overtime against the Patriots where McDaniels got the better of his former boss, Bill Belichick.
Unfortunately, after that 6-0 start, the Broncos would go on to lose all but five of the next 22 games Josh McDaniels would coach with the franchise. They had a record of 11-17 with McDaniels as the team's head coach and he was fired before the end of his second season with the team. Why? Well, McDaniels embarrassed the franchise by getting caught cheating with a similar issue the Patriots had just recently had at the time, filming the opposing team and trying to use it to their advantage.
The decision to fire Mike Shanahan after the 2008 season broke Pat Bowlen's heart. They both shared tears at Shanahan's final press conference with the team and the fact that Bowlen made the difficult decision to part ways with Shanahan undoubtedly made the way McDaniels treated the head coach position all the more disgusting to him.
McDaniels was a major power trip in his time with Denver. He came in and immediately alienated Pro Bowl QB Jay Cutler, trading him to the Chicago Bears before even being with the team for a couple of months. McDaniels began reshaping the roster to really put the Patriots stamp on the Broncos and some of the stuff he did was outrageous, starting with alienating and trading Cutler.
McDaniels undoubtedly knows football well, but the issue is, he's a terrible head coach. He had guys running laps constantly at training camp. He was always cussing out players and seemingly abusing his power as the team's head coach, riding the coattails of his time working for the Patriots but coming off more like a spoiled brat.
The McDaniels era in Denver is a complete embarrassment for the organization and fan base, and I struggled not putting him in the number one slot. He had such a talented offensive roster to work with in 2009 and he blew the roster up for really no good reason. All is well that ends well, as the Broncos were fortunate enough to land free agent QB Peyton Manning in 2012, but McDaniels would have had no way of knowing that could happen.
It just so happened he put the Broncos in perfect position to go after Manning.
Still, his abilities on the football side of thing keep him in the number two slot of this list.
Worst head coaches in Denver Broncos history
1. Nathaniel Hackett (2022)
You really hate to do this, because Nathaniel Hackett really does seem like an awesome human being who obviously meant no harm. Unfortunately, as an NFL head coach, Hackett was in way over his head.
At this point in time, it almost seems abundantly clear that the Broncos' plan was to hire Hackett as a means of luring Aaron Rodgers to the Mile High City. Starting in the 2021 NFL Draft, it felt like the Broncos had a really solid chance for a full calandar year of getting Rodgers to Denver and hiring Hackett was arguably the biggest step they took toward making that happen.
Seeing Hackett go to the Jets followed by New York trading for Rodgers? It kind of validates all of those previous Rodgers-to-Denver rumors.
But the Broncos didn't get Rodgers, and Hackett's time with the team was nothing short of abysmal. They were the worst offense in the NFL in 2022, ranking 32nd in the league at under 17 points per game. The Broncos were the worst team in the league converting on third downs, they were the 2nd-most penalized team in the league, and they were just 4-11 before firing Hackett after a Christmas debacle against the Los Angeles Rams.
Hackett struggled badly early on with game management. So much so that George Paton called former Baltimore Ravens special teams coach Jerry Rosburg out of retirement to basically manage games for the team. The Broncos were struggling with the play clock, situational football, and it was so bad so quickly that a drastic measure had to be taken.
By the time we got to the end of the season, Hackett had essentially been stripped of one of his primary duties as the head coach as well as stripped of his duties calling plays for the offense. The Broncos tried letting Klint Kubiak call plays as well as Justin Steele after Hackett was fired.
Hackett is now one of only four head coaches in NFL history to be fired before the end of their first season with the team. The Denver Broncos' new ownership group was fed up with the way things were going in their first year with the team and they got the process of hiring a new head coach underway as quickly as possible.
Hackett's gaffes were not limited to game management or poor offense, either. The staff that he built was mostly his buddies and it cost the Broncos dearly in areas like the offensive line, where Hackett let go of Mike Munchak in favor of Butch Barry, who was immediately fired by Jerry Rosburg last year when Rosburg took over as interim head coach.
Overall, it wasn't just about the record the team had with Hackett as the head coach, but the way the team operated and how big of a mess was truly made last year.