For the most part, the year 2022 has been rough for the new NFL head coaches.
Nine NFL teams entered 2022 with new head coaches, and two have already made changes (Steve Wilks replaced Matt Rhule in Carolina and Jeff Saturday replaced Frank Reich in Indianapolis).
Among the new head coaches, only Mike McDaniel of the Miami Dolphins (8-3), Kevin O’Connell of the Minnesota Vikings (9-2) and Brian Daboll of the New York Giants (7-4) have winning records through 12 weeks.
While the majority of these first-year head coaches will likely be back in 2023, there’s already one firing that feels inevitable: Nathaniel Hackett of the Denver Broncos.
The Broncos were widely expected to contend for a Super Bowl after trading for longtime Seattle Seahawks superstar quarterback Russell Wilson. But the offense has been a disaster, and they sit as the worst team in the AFC West (3-8) with six games to go.
In his latest Football Morning in America column, NBC Sports’ Peter King explained that he’ll “be extremely surprised if” the Broncos retain Hackett beyond the 2022 season.
“I think I will not be surprised if Nathaniel Hackett makes it to the end of this season as Denver coach. But I will be extremely surprised if he isn’t one-and-done.”
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Before coming to Denver, Hackett spent three seasons as the offensive coordinator of the Green Bay Packers. The team recorded three straight 13-win seasons with Hackett calling the offense, and Aaron Rodgers won back-to-back MVP awards in 2020 and 2021.
In recent years, the trend has been for teams to hire young, offensive minds for head coaching positions. Given Hackett’s success with Rodgers, it was easy to assume he would immediately make it work with Wilson.
But somehow, the Broncos offense has gotten significantly worse compared to the previous squads that used the likes of Brock Osweiler, Trevor Siemian, Drew Lock, Case Keenum and Teddy Bridgewater at quarterback.
Bridgewater played well enough to win seven of 14 starts with the Broncos last season. And he didn’t cost them $245 million or a combination of high-end picks and starting players.
So no, it’s not too early to suggest that Broncos GM George Paton is feeling buyer’s remorse.
