Dre'Mont Jones Compares 'Night & Day' Difference Between Nathaniel Hackett & Vic Fangio
The Denver Broncos drafted Dre'Mont Jones in the third round back in 2019. Jones was one of the Broncos' premium picks in Vic Fangio's maiden draft class as head coach.
For the next three seasons, Jones played well for Fangio — first as a depth defensive lineman and later as a starter on the Broncos' defense. Following the 2021 season, wherein the Broncos finished with just seven wins, Fangio was fired.
In January, Fangio quietly exited stage left while Nathaniel Hackett arrived at Broncos 'HQ like a whirling dervish of positivity. Although Jones is only entering his fourth year in the league, he was asked to explain the difference between Hackett and Fangio on Tuesday following an OTA practice.
While Jones didn't mean to take a subtle jab at his former head coach, it's hard to interpret it any other way.
“I haven’t been around that long to critique every other coach," Jones said. "All I know is Coach Fangio. It’s extremely different—like night and day. I would say—[this is] not a shot [at Fangio]—but Coach Hackett’s more day. Vic’s a little more night because Hackett’s a little more expressive with his videos and just has a bubbly personality. And Vic’s more to-the-point with it. And that’s not a problem.”
Indeed, Fangio had been the only head coach Jones had known up until Hackett arrived in January. The two coaches couldn't be more different in comparison, both in their football expertise (Fangio, defense/Hackett, offense) and their personalities.
Hackett is an extrovert and very animated. Cracking a joke or falling on the sword of self-deprecation — if it means upping the mood in the room — is not beneath him.
Fangio, meanwhile, was more of an introvert as the head coach in Denver. A blunt, cantankerous, and old-school coach, he struggled to bond with the younger players in the locker room and cultivate a grass-roots buy-in to what he was trying to achieve.
On the flip side, Hackett's entire focus is on connecting with the young "YouTube generation" that now inhabits UCHealth Training Center. The philosophical gap between Fangio and Hackett is vast — from the outside looking in.
And from the inside, at least according to Jones, the two coaches are "night and day." The one thing Hackett has in common with Fangio (20-plus years his senior) is the ultimate objective of winning football games.
Fangio couldn't deliver on that front, so he was shown the door. Time will tell whether Hackett can produce better results but he'll have one thing that Fangio lacked: a bonafide franchise quarterback.
There's no telling what hay Fangio could have made for the Broncos if he had Russell Wilson under center. But that's a hypothetical I'm not sure is worth the time to analyze.
As for Jones, he's entering a contract year with a phenomenal opportunity in front of him. Tapped as a written-in-pen starter for the first time in his career, he gets to play in between free-agent additions D.J. Jones and Randy Gregory, which should help him be more productive statistically.
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