Broncos HC Looking Forward to 'Continuous Years' of Growth

For a team that just dropped its 14th straight game to a divisional rival and had its quarterback knocked out of the game, the Denver Broncos still proved some doubters wrong on Sunday.

Trailing 27-0, after only 20 mins of action, you could visualize Broncos majority owner Rob Walton placing the death call to GM George Paton to fire head coach Nathaniel Hackett.

Suddenly and unexpectedly, the wounded Broncos found some natural energy when wide receiver Jerry Jeudy lit a fire under them. The positives they can take from their furious rally give us hope that there is at least something tangible to build on.

Undoubtedly, the gutsy punching performance owed much to Russell Wilson finding his feet and successfully going off script. Although, it likely won't be enough to save his struggling head coach, who graciously paid tribute to his injured starting quarterback post-game.

"He was fighting the whole game. I give him so much credit, and you see it, day in and day out," Hackett said post-game of Wilson. "No matter what the situation is, just watching him there in that third-down situation to be able to break the pocket, and he was using his legs a lot. He obviously ended up getting a concussion."

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One thing that's one hundred percent assured is that the Broncos will have to work things out with their $245 million signal-caller moving forward. Wilson looked to have rediscovered some zest in his 34-year-old legs against the Kansas City Chiefs' defense, running for 64 yards before leaving with his head injury.

Going up-tempo is part of being in a 27-point hole that early in proceedings. It could be a compelling gameday strategy for Hackett because it suits Wilson's style of play.

"The guy's kind of felt the rhythm. I thought Russell did a great job using his feet," Hackett said. "Whenever he's able to break the pocket and run. He had some explosive runs there, which got us some good rushing yards and moved the ball. We got the third down conversion. I think we're good at the red zone, the third down, and all those things that we have planned on it. It's just about execution."

Once the dust settles, inescapable brutal reality will come calling at Broncos HQ: digging themselves a hole far too deep has been the recurring narrative of the entire season. If the Broncos' season were to end today, they would gift-wrap the second overall pick in the NFL draft to the Seattle Seahawks.

Hackett is bound to realize that the clock is ticking on his tenure in the Mile High City, making his comments about constantly building seem futile.

"There's been a lot of adversity this year, and you have a choice. You get angry about the adversity, or you utilize it to grow," Hackett admitted. "As a team, we have to grow. We have to take this adversity. So wherever that comes again, we can build off that. We understand that. It's not something new. It's not something we haven't experienced so that we can continue to grow as a team because it's not just about one year. It's about continuous years over and over that you want to get great, and you want to keep working. For us, we have to keep working and keep developing."

Should Hackett opt to sit Wilson the rest of the way, he almost certainly assures his legacy as the failed head coach who delivered the Seahawks their prized draft pick.

In the final analysis, no matter what the Broncos achieve, they can't seem to blow the dark clouds away that continue to haunt the team.

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