Nathaniel Hackett says Broncos have “new season,” talks playoff push
Nov 7, 2022, 11:37 AM
At 3-5, the 2022 Broncos aren’t out of it yet.
They’re not exactly in it, either. Denver currently sits as the No. 12 seed in the AFC, two games behind the No. 7 seed Los Angeles Chargers and their 5-3 record.
It’s going to take a lot to go right for the Broncos to even consider making a run at the postseason. But fresh off a bye week, head coach Nathaniel Hackett floated that idea at his Monday press conference. He told the media after this break, it’s a blank slate for his team.
“It’s a new season. Nine games. Everything’s ahead of us. In this league, to be able to get to where you want to go, you have to be able to win a bunch of games in a row. Whether it’s the beginning, whether it’s the end, to put yourself in position to go to the playoffs. You’ve got to win, and you’ve got to win a bunch of them. We have nine games available to us,” Hackett said.
Again, nine games is a lot, but the schedule gets significantly harder. The first half was the “easier” stretch for the Broncos, and they couldn’t win a lot of those games. They have the Chiefs twice, plus a trip to Baltimore and a trip to Tennessee this Sunday.
Hackett says Denver will build off its 21-17 win against the Jaguars in London, hopefully using that as a spring board over this final stretch and second half of the season.
“It was a great start this past week against Jacksonville. We had a couple opportunities, guys made some big plays and we need to build off that. Both offense and defense and special teams. So, I think it’s about what we can do as an individual, as a unit, as a team because we’ve got nine games left. Big season. Long season ahead,” Hackett said.
There are a fair amount of games left on the schedule, but Hackett is going to have to keep winning them or he might not be around for all nine. We’ve already seen two coaches around the NFL fired — and as CEO Greg Penner pointed out in London — this is a week-to-week league. Hackett knows that, and so does his team.
The wins need to start coming in bunches, and that task starts on Sunday.
***
