It’s about time this move happened. The Denver Broncos owners and management hierarchy finally got their heads out of the Colorado mountain clouds and fired Nathainel Hackett after a 4-11 record and a 51-24 blowout loss to the Rams.
How Hackett was allowed to keep his job after so many disastrous offensive outings, even though he was specifically brought into the organization as a ‘QB guru’, is really beyond my level of comprehension.
It was obvious after the Broncos hired Jeff Rosenburg to help Hackett in making game/clock management situations (you know, the literal job description of an NFL HC) in Week 3 that the former Packers coordinator was not up for the job. How can you justify your job as a HC when you can’t even be trusted to make game/clock management decisions?
And, like I said, that was just Hackett being bad at his job as head coach of the Denver Broncos. His tenure as the offensive play caller was so much worse it’s honestly unfathomable how Hackett was ever hired as an offensive coach in his lifetime.
The Denver Broncos literally went from an offense that was a quarterback away from contending for a Super Bowl to being the 32nd worst scoring offense in the NFL this season, along with being one of the worst in NFL history. Plus, this all happened after the Broncos went out and traded for a then-Hall of Fame lock and former Super Bowl MVP QB Russell Wilson from the Seattle Seahawks.
To take an offense with weapons like Courtland Sutton, Jerry Judy, Tim Patrick, and KJ Hamler, which certainly isn’t the best core in the league but also not the worst, and a QB like Russell Wilson and make them the most dysfunctional offense that has graced (more like stained) a football field this season is an achievement in its own right. A bad achievement.
The Broncos under Nathaniel Hackett went from a team that averaged 19.9 PPG, 119.1 rushing yards/game, 211.4 passing yards/game and a 65% average completion percentage/game into a team that now averages 15.5 PPG, 107.5 rushing yards/game, 209.1 passing yard/game, and a 60% average completion percentage/game with BETTER players!
I mean, when a coach turns Russell Wilson, who was a bonified Hall of Fame lock QB prior to his move to Denver, into a worse quarterback than Drew Lock, who is now Geno Smith’s (Russell Wilson’s former backup) backup, you know they’re really bad at their job.
Now, I can’t blame everything that went bad on Hackett as Wilson has played like a bum all season with just 3,019 passing yards, 12 TDs, and a whopping 9 INTs, while the Broncos running backs have been about as effective as a boat with holes in it.
But, when the Broncos defense has been as great as it has looked this season with guys like Baron Browing, Randy Gregory, Patrick Surtain II, Kareem Jackson, Justin Simmons Alex Singleton, Deshawn Williams, etc. playing lights out defense (the Broncos were the #1 scoring defense at one point), it’s inexcusable to be so bad on offense that the team can only manage four wins in fifteen games.
That’s why Hackett has been replaced by Jeff Rosenburg, the very man he hired to help him “learn on the job”, as the head coach of the Denver Broncos. And, I don’t mean to sound callous or mean, but this dreadful performance and quite frankly destructive tenure from Hackett has convinced me this man should never be allowed to lead NFL players as a HC again.
Nathaniel Hackett will go down as one of the worst ever coaches in the history of the game of football, let alone the history of the Denver Broncos.
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