ENGLWOOD, Co. — The Dancer broncos fired first-year head coach Nathaniel Hackett on Monday.
This move comes after the start of 4-11 and Sunday lose 51-14 arrive The Los Angeles Rams.
Hackett’s dismissal puts an end to the shortest tenure of any non-interim head coach in franchise history. The Broncos’ new ownership — the Walton-Penner Group, led by Walmart heiress Rob Walton, daughter Carrie Walton Penner and son-in-law Greg Penner — quickly ran out of patience with a team with one of its defenses. best league but a simple offense is not able to score.
“After extensive conversations with [general manager] George [Paton] and our ownership team, we have identified a new direction that will ultimately benefit the Broncos,” Penner said in a statement. New head coach.
“Going forward, we will carefully evaluate every aspect of our football operations and make any changes necessary to restore this brand’s winning tradition.”
Penner added that Paton will assist in finding a coach. The team also scheduled a press conference for Tuesday noon ET.
Old Baltimore Crows assistant coach Jerry Rosburg, who was hired by Denver in September to assist with in-game management decisions, has been named the team’s interim head coach for the remainder of this season.
At one point this season, the Broncos had the No. 1 scoring defence and the No. 32 goalscoring defence. The Broncos also missed the knockout stages for the seventh consecutive year, their longest knockout drought. since the early years of the franchise, when they missed the knockout stages from 1960 to 1976.
It’s a far cry from the three-decade run as Hall of Famer owner Pat Bowlen, when the Broncos attended more Super Bowls (seven) than they lost. This season is also the fifth time the Broncos have averaged fewer than 20 points per game over the past seven years. Until Hackett’s dismissal, Josh McDaniels had the shortest tenure as the team’s non-interim head coach in the post-AFL-NFL consolidation. He was fired in 2010 with four games left in his second season on the job. The Broncos were 3-9 when he was fired.
Hackett, 42, was hired in January as the franchise’s 18th head coach after three seasons as head coach. Green Bay Packers‘ attack coordinator under Matt LaFleur. At the time, Paton called Hackett a “dynamic leader and coach whose intelligence, innovation, and charisma impressed us early in the process.”
Then-Rams Attack Coordinators Kevin O’Connell and dalas cowboy Defensive coordinator Dan Quinn was also a finalist for the role. O’Connell was later hired by Minnesota Vikings, whose revival attack got them off to a 12-3 start. Immediately after hiring Hackett, the Broncos traded five draft picks, including two first picks and two second picks, as well as three first-round picks. Seattle Seahawks football team to get quarterback Russell Wilson. Wilson was signed to a five-year, $245 million extension just before the season began.
But the excitement over the Broncos’ season quickly fizzled out when Hackett’s in-game decision-making was questioned early in the season.
In Week 1, his call for a kicker Brandon McManus tried to score at 64 yards instead of letting Wilson try to get the fourth and fifth goals in the last minute of the controversial 17-16 loss to Seattle.
Hackett said the day after the loss: “One of those things, you look back at it and say, ‘Of course we should have done that; we missed the target on the field.’ But in that situation, we had a plan, we knew 46 was the landmark.”
Game management problems continued in the weeks that followed — fans even counted down the clock for some home games — leading to Rosburg hiring. However, the disconnect between Hackett, Wilson and the offense continued. Hackett frequently emphasized that he wanted to “build this around [Wilson]” and doing what Wilson “is comfortable with” in the offense even as Wilson repeatedly says he’s comfortable “doing a lot of things.”
With 15.5 points per game, the Broncos are at their lowest point total at this point in a season since 1966.
Injuries to frontline players such as left tackles Garett Bollesrun again Javonte Williamswide receiver Tim Patrick and outside the linebacker Randy Gregory Definitely doesn’t help. But as the season went on, the public spoke less about Hackett’s willingness to think out of the box in his teaching methods and more about why Broncos offense has been so bad in history. . Five of the Broncos’ first six losses and a total of eight were single-point matches.
That was not the case on Sunday, when the Denver defense saw the Rams score at eight of their nine properties. Also, backup midfielder Brett Rypien and protect Dalton Risner talked to each other on the sidelines after a streak in the third quarter when Wilson was fired after back-to-back matches.
Gregory was withdrawn from the game twice by Hackett, once in the first half when he was flagged after throwing his helmet after a Rams touchdown, and then when he was flagged for a hit late into the quarterback of Los Angeles Mayfield baker. “After that second we got rid of him – that’s unacceptable,” Hackett said.
As the teams gathered in the middle of the field on their way to the locker room after the game, Gregory and the Rams defended Oday Aboushi exchanged words – while wearing a helmet – and Gregory punched Aboushi’s helmet. Aboushi responds with a punch of his own before they separate. Both Gregory and Aboushi are suspend a game by the NFL on Monday.
With the wealthiest ownership group in the NFL as well as a passionate enough fan base that, even now, has given the Broncos a string of home sales that began in 1970, the Broncos’ head coach role will be a fascinating job.
