BRONCOS

Why the Broncos should move on from Hackett sooner rather than later

Dec 1, 2022, 6:36 AM | Updated: 6:48 am

As the calendar turns to December, I can’t help but think the same things everyone in Broncos Country does.

It was not supposed to be like this. What in the world is going on here? How do they turn this around?

After all, this was supposed to be a December to remember. In a sense, that remains true. There’s no doubt it will not be forgotten any time soon, just not for the reasons we expected.

No one thought the Broncos could be this bad. Nobody.

Could the team have a bad season and fall short of expectations? Sure. This is professional sports we’re talking about; things don’t work out all the time. They are far from the first team to make a splash move for a savior only to have it all blow up in their face. They certainly won’t be the last, either.

By now we all know the series of events that occurred to bring the Broncos to where they sit today in their current state. We’ve all been over the hypotheticals in our heads time after time after time…

What if they never paid Russell Wilson? What would they do now if they weren’t on the hook for that contract?

What if they had hired Kevin O’Connell, Mike McDaniel or Brian Daboll? They didn’t even interview McDaniel and Daboll!

What if they approached training camp trying to prepare for the new era as best they possibly could have?

What if all these starters didn’t get injured? Would it look different?

The thing is, none of that really matters anymore. The focus is to move forward, to get Denver on track to building a recipe for success with Russell Wilson. With this version of Russell Wilson.

At 3-8, currently slated for the third-overall pick in the upcoming draft. Unfortunately, that belongs to the Seahawks. Denver is facing the grueling end of yet another losing season, a familiar feeling Broncos Country knows all too well.

It’s time to start asking the same question everyone saw play out in front of their eyes just one year ago. At what point does Denver get to the stage they were at with Vic Fangio?

That’s the time when football decisions should be made with an eye toward the future, not the short-term. It’ll be hard to fully embrace that philosophy, however, because Nathaniel Hackett will become increasingly more desperate to try and win games in the name of self-preservation? Thus, by retaining him, with each passing week the Broncos are actually creating a situation where it does more harm than good to your long-term investment.

Aren’t they already there?

Is that what happens from here on out this season with Hackett at the helm purely a complete waste of time that serves to have a detrimental effect? Unfortunately, probably.

In the effort of being proactive and not even further reactive to a bad situation, for better or worse, agree or disagree, there is a way to move forward.

Making reactionary decisions to pitfalls and poor judgement is what got the Broncos to 3-8. Be it staff operations, auxiliary coaching hires that should have been made in the first place, or personnel decisions that result in a total lack of accountability, it got them nowhere. The Broncos were not good when they were healthy. Since they’ve been injured, however early into Hackett’s tenure it was, he has not given us any reason to think that he has the capacity to handle this job. In fact, quite the opposite.

It sucks, but we all know it’s true.

The problem is, the Broncos don’t have the time to wait for him to figure it out. The train is barreling down the tracks and the conductor’s still reading the manual. I’m sure Hackett understands how bad things are right now; in fact, I know he does. However, I also know he does not have the answers. That’s evidently clear.

He tells everyone that publicly during his press conferences. Just listen to him. Nor does Hackett have any cards left to play to really shake things up. He’s already relinquished play-calling duties. That was it. There aren’t any more lifelines. It is all over. Time has run out.

On Jan. 9 of this year, George Paton met with the media before embarking on yet another coaching search in Broncos Country. The head of the hiring committee declared, “We’re going to get this right.” Fast forward to Dec. 1… not so much, George. Swing and a miss.

The time has come for the general manager to suck it up. Take the pie in the face, bite the bullet, jump on the sword and dive on the grenade that fell out of his own pocket. He has to step up and own the massive error in judgement he made in Hackett’s hiring, and vow he’s going to work to rectify this to the best of his abilities with eyes on making Wilson’s time in Denver what he originally intended it to be.

The first order of business is to go ahead and clear out Hackett and offensive coordinator Justin Outten after the loss to Baltimore. Before you even think it, stop right there. We both know that’s a loss. Let’s move on. If by some stroke of pure luck they win that game, we can have a conversation about letting this ride out to the end of the year, but let’s not be ridiculous here.

The move has to be made before the Broncos matchup with Kansas City at home, although there may be more Chiefs fans in the stands than people wearing orange and blue. Denver makes the move with the idea that if they are going to make a change in season, do it when it might have the most benefit, do it when there’s still gas left in the tank.

Take a flier on a post-firing spark, however long it might last and shift the energy. Maybe they get lucky hosting Patrick Mahomes and keep it tight for a half if they can find a way to get points on the board early. Maybe they find some things to build on and hey, who knows, “any given Sunday.”

It serves little purpose to let Hackett go at the end of the season when the two-week grace period to begin interviewing potential head coaching candidates starts. The hottest names will most likely still be in the playoffs into late January. As Broncos Country saw on display last offseason, nothing will happen until the first domino falls.

A year ago, that was Hackett. He was first coach of the cycle hired on Jan. 27; he was the hottest name. It is a long interview process that takes time to prepare and execute logistically. The notion of a “head start” because of the grace period is way overblown. You want a real head start? How does Monday sound?

The Broncos should probably name current defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero as their interim head coach, if they feel he could efficiently manage games while simultaneously calling the plays defensively. Just because Hackett can’t handle doing two things at once does not mean someone else couldn’t. Kevin O’Connell and Mike McDaniel are doing just fine.

If they promote Evero, however, it in essence voids his contract as defensive coordinator. The Broncos would like to keep him around in that capacity for the next regime if they can. However, he will get interviews for other head coaching jobs this offseason, so I’m not sure he’ll be here next year either way even if you wanted him to stick around

If not, give the interim honor to senior defensive assistant Dom Capers and leave Evero in place to preserve the contract and call the defense. Capers was a head coach for eight seasons in the NFL with both the Panthers and Texans. His combined record of 48-80 is an eyesore, but between him and a late addition to the staff, Jerry Rosburg, they could handle the management aspect enough to get the Broncos across the finish line of the ’22 season.

The next and most important step is to promote quarterbacks coach Klint Kubiak to offensive coordinator. Kubiak gets the job with strict instructions that the No. 1 priority over the final five games offensively is to figure out how to create a winning formula with Russell at this stage in his career. At the very least, with complete freedom to experiment, find some concepts that he can effectively execute.

The Broncos are stuck with Wilson for at least for a few years at the bare minimum. It is what it is. They have no choice but to try and make it work. Right now, they’re pulling at the parachute tab, but it’s not there. It’s just a free-fall spiraling towards the ground because they paid the guy. There’s nothing they can do now in that regard. The ink has long since dried.

If the Broncos continue to lose more games but are trying different things and keeping it interesting for the guys on the roster, they might stop the bleeding in the locker room. Put pressure on their wounds, cross their fingers and throw the book at the wall to see if something sticks schematically. See if they can implement the boot game, the play action, maneuvering the pocket with easy reads to put Russell in spots where he’s comfortable and can actually see what’s happening in front of him to make his way through his progressions.

If the reports are true and Denver’s not going to be able to lure Sean Payton into this tire fire, start with exactly what he said he would do. Have Kubiak pour through what worked in Seattle, find a few things that they can feasibly install during the week that they think they can execute. Implement those missing elements of the West Coast offense we still haven’t seen. Be creative and figure out what you have here. The primary goal is to truly determine what Russell’s strengths are. What this version of Russ can do well that puts him in the best position to succeed, in turn, putting the team in the best position to win games.

We already know Hackett and Outten cannot do it. If they could have, things would already be different. Paton has to get them out of the building and go at this with a blank slate. No one standing over anyone’s shoulder worried about whose feelings might get hurt or whose toes are being stepped on. None of that. Get fresh sets of eyes to give you different thoughts and a new approach. A hard reset. It will not work with them there.

In fact, their presence in the building is actually hurting more than helping when everyone already knows what the future holds for them in Denver. If Russell’s time in Denver is ever going to breed success, they have to stop being disappointed that things haven’t gelled, throw convention to the wind and get to work.

Paton cannot let Hackett continue to run this team out the following five Sundays unprepared and poorly coached, only to keep getting embarrassed. In the process, further building bad habits and miring in the losing culture that Hackett was brought in to repair. Paton can’t just sit there and throw his hands up and say, “Hey, what good does it do anyway?” I’ll tell you what good it does.

Take a practical and proactive approach with different leadership and a new voice. In doing that, Paton will have taken ego of the equation by removing desperate and incompetent coaches who will act to serve their own job security rather than the long-term benefit of the organization. Keeping things “status quo,” to quote Hackett, will get them exactly that. The same old Broncos, one of the worst offenses in NFL history.

By moving on, they will have a better idea of what this could really look like moving forward. They will have a clearer picture of the franchise’s future and will have begun making up for a few tremendous mistakes that, blame aside, have set their house on fire. Metaphorically speaking of course. Not in the very literal sense of what happened this Summer when a section of the east side of Empower Field burst into flames because of a construction mishap. In hindsight, how apropos.

Despite the common turn of phrase, you can’t actually dig yourself out of a hole. Digging is what created the hole. Digging only serves to make the hole deeper. Put the shovel down and start climbing because a ladder out isn’t magically appearing here. It’s a shame, but the season is over. The Broncos have to stop spinning their wheels. There’s no use running from it now or delaying the inevitable. There can be an upside to everything if you look for it.

After removing Hackett and Outten, the Broncos will have the luxury of not having any stakes on the line and some of the overwhelming pressure will be relieved. The noise will quiet down. The temperature will go from boiling to simmering because the fanbase cannot call for anyone’s head but Paton’s until season’s end.

We just saw a prime example of that locally after the University of Colorado fired Karl Dorrell midseason. If there is heat, it will be on Paton, and he’ll just have to deal with it in the meantime. After all, at the end of the day, right or wrong, this colossal failure ultimately falls at his feet. The good news is he can take the spotlight away from the mess he made very easily actually. The best GMs know the team comes first; that’s the primary focus of the office of the general manager. His time is probably running out anyway, why not go out swinging?

What else could he do? There’s plenty. He just has to get creative. Here’s an example of outside-of-the-box thinking that would serve to benefit the franchise.

Call Gary Kubiak and Mike Shanahan. Now, I don’t know their respective situations, or if they’d even entertain something like this, but you have absolutely nothing to lose by asking at this point. I’d offer them consulting roles for the rest of the season or a one-time, flat consultation fee to spend a few days at practice over a few different of the coming weeks. I’d offer to give them X amount to be around these next few weeks. I’d give them access to all the coaches film. And in return, I’d want them to tell me in their opinion, what does this team need to be successful? From a leadership perspective, schematic perspective and whatever else comes up. I’d want that insight.

Near the end of the five weeks, I’d want a report back to get the perspective of veteran, accomplished, football minds that the team so desperately lacks in the building. I would not make it public. They would be resources for Greg Penner and Paton, like a quasi-secret council. If they say no, fine. But what is money to Penner? Make Kubiak and Shanahan say no.

I know Paton had the very best of intentions when he hired Hackett and traded for Wilson. He was trying to build a winner and took some big chances. However, they look like two huge mistakes at the moment. Right, wrong or indifferent, if I made the blunders Paton made, even with the very best of intentions, and it turned out like this, the absolute last thing I would do is sit on my hands and opt for indecision and inaction doubling down on hope that things could turn without altering the process. It certainly would be easier, and cleaner, there’s no doubt about that. However, the right thing is not always easy. If I screwed up like he did and put the franchise in this situation, I would work my tail off to prove myself and rectify it while I still had the chance.

George Paton has to give Greg Penner a reason to keep him around past the end of this season. His job is far from secure. The Walton-Penner Family Ownership Group did not hire him. They are not indebted to him whatsoever. They are, however, indebted to his major decisions made this offseason and that’s not a good place for Paton to be right now considering the results so far. It’s time to show new ownership that you are the right man for the job and make the obvious call here.

The problem is, at least publicly, Paton can be even nicer than Hackett at times. Remember when he called Fangio the best coach he’s ever worked with on his way out the door? He can’t play this one that way and expect to get a warm reception. Paton is going to have to make some uncomfortable and possibly unpopular choices. His future as general manager in the NFL will not be bright if he resigns the franchise to being stuck in this mess of his own making for the next three to five years.

The way I see it, he can certainly wait to eventually be fired after the year because this is going nowhere fast. Handing Seattle a top-five pick is ugly and that’s squarely on his head. Better yet, be proactive and get a jumpstart on getting out of this jam by making the obvious decision looking you dead in the face.

To those who say, “What good does it do you if you fire him now? Does it really make a difference?”

You’re dang right it does. If they go about it the right way.

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