The Nathaniel Hackett era with the Denver Broncos has come to an end, and it lasted only 15 games.
The Broncos announced on Monday that Hackett has been fired as the team’s head coach, less than 24 hours after they were humiliated by a Los Angeles Rams team that had won only four games all season and was playing without several of its top players.
Replacing Hackett after the season seemed to be a real possibility given how badly the 2022 campaign has gone in Denver. But to not even get through a full season is a damning indictment of just how bad it has been.
Sunday’s loss in Los Angeles was obviously too much for ownership to take. Not only did they lose 51-14, but the broadcast caught a fight between the offensive line and the team’s quarterbacks on the sidelines, while defensive lineman Randy Gregory got into a fight after the game.
From the very beginning of the year, Hackett seemed to be in over his head given some glaring mistakes with game management and in-game decisions. But the team showed no sign of progress all season and has had one of the league’s worst offenses despite paying a massive price (in terms of trade capital and money) to acquire quarterback Russell Wilson from the Seattle Seahawks.
Now the Broncos are stuck in a position where they are again entering the head coaching market, have a potential albatross contract on their hands in Wilson, and will not even get a top draft pick to make up for an awful season on the field.
The most high-profile coaching candidate on the market will be Sean Payton, but the Broncos would need to come up with some sort of draft pick compensation to get his rights from the New Orleans Saints (and their draft capital was depleted by the Wilson trade) and it would also need to be a job that actually seemed attractive to Payton.
