NFL media reacts to Denver Broncos firing Nathaniel Hackett

December 28, 2022 ndowd

The Denver Broncos made he only move they could and have finally fired Nathaniel Hackett — unfortunately before his first season was in the books.

It’s incredibly rare for an NFL team to fire its head coach after only one season with the team, but then again the situation in Denver was beyond saving.

Nathaniel Hackett seemed doomed from Week 1, and won’t even be able to finish out his first season as the Broncos head coach.

Denver fired Hackett on Monday, following a 51-14 thumping by the Rams on Christmas Day and amid a season of absolute turmoil. Nothing has gone right for the Broncos, and the offense that Hackett was brought in to revolutionize has fallen back into the Dark Ages.

It’s not all Hackett’s fault, to be fair. Russell Wilson has been doing his head coach absolutely zero favors with how he’s played this season. When Wilson was acquired from Seattle, it seemed to signal the dawning of a new era in Denver. He was quickly signed to a five-year, $242 million extension before the season started — a deal the Broncos would probably like back after the way things have gone.

That deal essentially made it a Hackett-or-Wilson situation, and the money answered the question.

With so much money tied up in Wilson — and his poor play making him virtually untradeable, which is a heck of a statement to make –there was no way the Broncos were choosing Hackett over him. They simply could’t afford to make Wilson the failure in this, and for as bad as he’s played, Hackett was clearly more of the problem.

Broncos players have been jawing at Wilson all season, players seem uninterested in buying into Hackett’s culture, and things were coming apart at the seams. One lasting image of Hackett’s tenure will be backup quarterback Brett Rypien yelling at the offensive line for abandoning Wilson before getting told off by everyone he was yelling at.

That’s a clear sign that a locker room is lost and the head coach in charge of it has absolutely zero control.

Nathaniel Hackett fired: NFL media reacts

Needless to say, given how obvious things have seemed from the start, not many people were surprised that Hackett was fired.

The product on the field for the #Broncos was bad. The QB play was bad. The fighting on the sideline was just as bad or maybe worse — a sign the coach had no control over anything. Thus, the firing of #Broncos coach Nathaniel Hackett.

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) December 26, 2022

How many NFL coaches have been fired DURING their first seasons? Hackett and Meyer come to mind. Petrino and Holtz resigned.

Gotta be a very, very short list.

— Matt Verderame (@MattVerderame) December 26, 2022

Nathaniel Hackett was one of the most incompetent coach’s I’ve ever seen and I am an expert in this matter because I saw Marty Mornhinweg take the wind in an OT game.

— Isaac (@WorldofIsaac) December 26, 2022

Nathaniel Hackett was the third most impactful voice of the Packers offenses from 2020-2021 and everyone’s shocked it didn’t work out

— SportsTalkATL Alex (@GeauxSportsTalk) December 26, 2022

The question now becomes what do the Broncos do next, and what is the full extent of the changes?

Perhaps the only secure piece of Denver’s future is its next most unstable one — Russell Wilson. The goal will be to now build a winner around a quarterback who has looked lost all season and seemingly hasn’t settled in despite being nearly finished with a full season as starter (aside from some minor missed time due to a concussion).

The first move is to find a head coach who can do what the Broncos were hoping Hackett would but failed to. Kellen Moore was interviewed by the Broncos last season before the team ultimately decided to hire Hackett, and he could be a name that resurfaces this offseason.

Sean Payton is eyeing a return to the NFL, and taking over a team with Russell Wilson — as bad as he’s looked — is certainly intriguing for someone who has the experience Payton does. But he’s reportedly tabbed Vic Fangio to be his defensive coordinator, which would complicate things for obvious reasons.

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