Broncos GM Addresses Whether Hackett Will Give Up Play-Calling

With the Denver Broncos on bye, one of the big questions surrounding the 3-5 team is what tweaks, what changes head coach Nathaniel Hackett might make to his operation. With the Broncos' fielding the second-to-worst scoring offense in the NFL, with only the Pittsburgh Steelers and their rookie quarterback behind them, fans and media alike have wondered if Hackett might relinquish play-calling duties and utilize the bye to perhaps get another coach going.

Time will tell, as Hackett's remarks on the subject of bye-week changes on Tuesday were classic coach-speak. You know, the Broncos will "continue to evaluate," etc.

But what does the general manager think? George Paton was the impetus for hiring Hackett this past January and following the tectonic Bradley Chubb trade earlier this week, the Broncos' GM shared his take on whether the head coach should give up play-calling.

“Those decisions are Nathaniel's," Paton said on Tuesday. "If Nathaniel thinks that a change here and there is going to make us a better football team, obviously, he'll make that change. Again, that's up to Nathaniel and I'm confident in Nathaniel.”

Coming out of the bye, the Broncos will travel to Nashville to take on the Tennessee Titans. The Broncos are 2-1 this year against AFC South opponents. Get your tickets to Broncos-Titans right now through SI Tickets!

In other words, no, Paton isn't squeezing Hackett to give up play-calling. And he's not about to strong-arm Hackett into firing someone to have a scapegoat to point to for P.R.'s sake.

“It’s good for everyone to kind of get away and take a breath," Paton said of the bye. "I believe in Nathaniel, as I said in London. They're going to work the next couple of days and we're all going to work. They're going to do quality control. I believe in Nathaniel’s coaches and we're going to figure this out. I like the way we're trending. We beat a good—Jacksonville is a talented football team. I believe in our coaching staff.”

Remember, Hackett wasn't hired because of some great acumen for team management/discipline (like Vic Fangio) or some vaunted reputation for being a leader of men (like Vance Joseph); he was hired because of his purported offensive expertise.

If that offensive expert suddenly opted to stop calling plays, what purpose would he serve as the Broncos' head coach? We already know that when it comes to game management and decisions, Hackett was woefully unprepared for the demands of the NFL head-coaching realm, which led the Broncos to go hire Jerry Rosburg to sort of hold the head coach's hand on gameday, allowing him to... focus on calling plays.

The Broncos chose to hire Hackett. And now they're at the ball with no choice but to dance with the coach that brought them.

Besides, it's not as if Denver has some no-brainer No. 2 option waiting in the wings with a plausible potential of being better than Hackett. The only guy with any play-calling experience to speak of is QBs coach Klint Kubiak, who served as the Minnesota Vikings' offensive coordinator last year.

Kubiak's play-calling was ridiculed for most of the year in Minnesota before he finally found a groove and began earning back some goodwill from the fan base. It wasn't enough to save the coaching staff, as Mike Zimmer and company were fired and replaced with Kevin O'Connell.

There is no outside knight in shining armor that could ride in and save the Broncos from the perils of the 2022 season. Denver's only hope is internal — that Hackett can continue to find his groove with quarterback Russell Wilson, who has looked very uncomfortable despite his 10 NFL seasons, leading many to surmise that the nine-time Pro Bowler is pressing, instead of playing his trademark brand of football.

“I get to know him more every single day," Hackett said of Wilson. "You grow the coach and player relationship when you go through situations and when you go through calling the plays for somebody. I agree to a certain extent with Russell that he's not necessarily pressing, but he's always trying to make a play. That’s his mentality and that’s the great ones’ [mentality]—the guys that have played a long time in this league and that have thrown for a lot of yards. They're always looking for those big plays. As we work together, I get to learn more when he's trying to find those, what he can do to get those and I'm trying to create those for him. Of course, we learn about each other after every single game.”

The Broncos showed signs of progress in Week 8's win in London. Here's to hoping that beating the Jacksonville Jaguars was a harbinger of offensive improvements to come.

In tandem with the opportunity to self-scout during the bye, that's the only hope for the 2022 Broncos to turn the ship around and make the leap from the NFL MEME doldrums to the playoffs. The Broncos haven't made the playoffs since 2015, which ended in a Super Bowl 50 triumph.

“It’s about the self-scout and finding out the areas where we need to improve," Hackett said on Tuesday. "I have already been working on that this whole morning. Third down and red zone are things that we have to continually get better at. That’s been [two] of our Achilles heels up to this point. We have to improve those areas, especially on offense. We will continually evaluate everything.”

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