Adam Schefter “surprised” George Paton is defending Nathaniel Hackett

On Thursday in London Broncos GM George Paton turned some heads by offering full support of embattled head coach Nathaniel Hackett.

Rather than say he’s looking for Hackett to be better and fans deserve more, he backed the coach in full and said he stands behind him.

“I believe in Nathaniel. I support Nathaniel 100 percent. He’s been in this for seven games as a head coach. The scrutiny he’s faced is unprecedented. We have had four primetime games, so he’s kind of had to learn in front of the entire world. I really like how he’s kept the team together. They’re connected. He’s kept our building together, and I appreciate how he’s fought through that,” Paton said.

That response caught ESPN’s Adam Schefter off guard. Schefter joined “Schlereth and Evans” on 104.3 The Fan a little later in the morning, and when asked about Hackett’s job security, went in a bit of a different direction.

“I was surprised, maybe I shouldn’t be, that George Paton’s coming out and defending your head coach and saying ‘I’m 100% behind him.’ To me, if you have to defend your rookie head coach and give him votes of confidence after seven games, that tells you all you need to know,” Schefter told Mark and Mike.

It’s interesting that Schefter wouldn’t necessarily say Hackett’s in trouble, but pointed out it was curious that Hackett would get an endorsement from the GM. Heck, at 2-5, this could be Hackett’s last game as Denver’s head coach should they lose. 2-6 heading into the bye would be a perfect time to make a change.

We’ll see how it all goes down, but for now, Schefter isn’t quite buying Paton’s endorsement of Hackett. It will be fascinating to see how it shakes out.

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