Bad partnership with Russell Wilson doomed Nathaniel Hackett’s Broncos tenure

News Heading: Bad partnership with Russell Wilson doomed Nathaniel Hackett’s Broncos tenure. The Broncos ousted the guy who tried to fix his highly paid quarterback, but not the man who brought him to Denver in the first place.

With 45 seconds remaining and facing a fourth-and-5 against Wilson’s previous team, the Broncos huddled, all three timeouts at their disposal. The seconds ticked away as teammates glanced at Wilson, bewildered. If a play was called, wide receiver Courtland Sutton told Wilson he didn’t know what it was as players exited the huddle.

Other players looked perplexed as they neared the ball, only to realize when the whistle blew with one second left on the play clock and 20 seconds remaining on the game clock that they wouldn’t be running a play at all. The game’s announcers and analysts — Joe Buck and Troy Aikman on ESPN; Peyton and Eli Manning on ESPN2 — were similarly baffled.

What has Happened Actually?

It wasn’t only Hackett’s decision to try a low-percentage kick with Brandon McManus, which was unsurprisingly awry in a 17-16 loss, that served as a foreshadowing sign. It was that the coach and quarterback, chosen by general manager George Paton to revitalize a sinking offense, didn’t seem to agree on anything.

Was a play called in the huddle? Were the Broncos meant to go for it on fourth down? Afterward, Hackett accepted full responsibility for the decision, but the apparent bewilderment on Denver’s sideline hinted at a deeper issue.

Less than four months later, as Hackett and Wilson walked off the field at SoFi Stadium after a humiliating 51-14 loss to the Rams on Sunday, the chasm appeared to be as wide as ever.

Hackett became the Broncos’ first fall guy on Monday, amid one of the worst seasons in franchise history. CEO Greg Penner revealed in a statement that the 42-year-old, whose employment lasted only 333 days, was fired after compiling a 4-11 record. Denver has never scored fewer points in the first 15 games of a season than the 232 it has so far in 2022. That dismal season-long performance, combined with a fiasco Sunday that included many flare-ups on the sideline, was enough for Penner to fire Hackett after only 15 games, making him only the second first-time head coach to be sacked before the end of his first season since 1978.

“Our fans deserve much better,” Penner said in a statement Monday. Penner is due to speak to the media Tuesday morning.

Hackett’s own errors contributed significantly to his fast demise. His coaching staff lacked knowledge. Early in the season, his troubles with game management led to the organization hiring veteran coach Jerry Rosburg, now the team’s interim head coach, to aid in that area. As injuries mounted, Hackett was sluggish to adapt his scheme to the Broncos’ limited personnel, and he handed over play-calling duties to quarterbacks coach Klint Kubiak nine games into the season. In many ways, he simply did not appear to be prepared for the immensity of the task.

But the biggest blunder in Denver this season — made not simply by Hackett, but by the entire organization — was underestimating what it would take to make the collaboration with Wilson succeed. The Broncos made it plain in both words and actions when they traded for Wilson in March that he would have a large role in how the offense was run.

“The beginning point is we want to make sure we’re doing what’s right for this team and what’s right for Russ,”

Hackett said at a press conference announcing the acquisition of the nine-time Pro Bowler.

It didn’t take long for it to become evident that what worked best for Wilson and what worked best for the team were frequently on opposing tracks. Wilson was significantly aided by the organization’s acquisition of him from the Seahawks for the price of five draft picks and three players. They offered him his own office in the team facilities, unrestricted access to the quarterback’s own coaching and training staff, and gave Wilson a prominent role in the design and implementation of the offense he would run with his new squad. Giving a player that much influence next to a young head coach attempting to establish his own authority created a difficult relationship, even if Hackett was oblivious to it at first.

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“I believe Russ has done an excellent job of surrounding himself with a fantastic support group, and they’re all wonderful people,” Hackett remarked on the eve of training camp. “We’re familiar with them. As we move forward, we’ll look over those issues and decide what’s best for the team. I want Russ to be playing at a high level, and I want him to be able to reach that level.”

Paton, who Penner said will help find Hackett’s replacement, stated before the season that the relationship between Wilson’s team and the company and its coaching staff was “collaborative” and “respectful of whatever boundaries that we have.”

“They’ve truly become a part of the Broncos family, and they’re really terrific individuals,” Paton said ahead of camp. “Anything we can do to get an advantage — our team gaining an advantage, Russ gaining an advantage. We’re all about winning, and if it helps us win, I’m all in.”

Denver did not benefit from the deal. The results — a last-place offense and Wilson’s worst statistical season — imply that the multiple routes of input resulted in game plans that lacked cohesiveness. There were instances when Hackett and Wilson didn’t appear to be watching the same game, with audibles in goal-line scenarios early in the season contributing to the team’s historically dismal start in the red zone.

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During the season, Hackett rarely publicly reprimanded Wilson — or any other player for that matter — and frequently blamed himself for the offense’s shortcomings. But, when Wilson threw two interceptions in his first three throw attempts, he raged during a halftime interview with CBS on Sunday, and he doubled down on that criticism after the game. The rage was also visible elsewhere.

When Wilson slid out of the pocket in the third quarter and fired into double coverage intended tight end Greg Dulcich, the pass was intercepted by Jalen Ramsey, and Courtland Sutton threw his hands up in despair. On the sideline late in the game, backup quarterback Brett Rypien approached the offensive linemen and encouraged them to pull Wilson, who was sacked six times, up off the field quicker. Left guard Dalton Rinser shoved Rypien in retaliation, while running back Latavius Murray shoved Risner in kind. The players brushed it up as miscommunication, but it was all a window into a team shattered by its continued failures.

The incoming head coach can’t have his destiny tied as closely to Wilson’s performance as Hackett did. Candidates will want to know what the strategy is for the quarterback and could insist on competition for Wilson in an effort to put checks and balances on the quarterback that were not in place this season.

The Broncos have learned the hard way that an equal relationship between coach and player, no matter his past success, isn’t the route forward.