Unless the Denver Broncos rip off a long winning streak and play themselves back into the AFC Playoff picture, there’s a pretty good chance the organization will be looking for yet another new head coach when the calendar arrives at January 9, 2023.
The latest new guy would be the team’s fourth head coach since Gary Kubiak – who led Denver to a Super Bowl 50 victory in January of 2016 – stepped down for health reasons.
You could certainly make the case that giving current Head Coach Nathaniel Hackett just one season on the job to prove himself is really unfair, and a pretty poor way go about deciding if a guy is up to the task. And you wouldn’t be wrong.
But you aren’t the Broncos brand new ownership group.
Start here: These owners didn’t hire Hackett.
He was brought on by the previous front office. And they come from the retail world, where employee turnover isn’t unusual. To them, if a person isn’t getting the job done, you make a change. (For that matter, they didn’t hire current General Manager George Paton, either.)
That’s why some of us went on the record a year ago at this time and advocated for then-Broncos Head Coach Vic Fangio to be kept on. The sale of the team was eminent, and it would have made more sense for the new owners to make the decision on a replacement for Fangio (who clearly wasn’t the long term answer, either.) But it didn’t play out that way.
Now here we are, and the new owners are pretty likely to have to make the call on a replacement HC anyway.
What will they do? Which direction will they go? Since they’ve got no track record to go on, it’s anyone guess. But the choices are pretty clear.
They can go with an old veteran/retread or try another up-and-comer/first time HC. There’s not a whole lot in between.
The previous owners tried each of the above. First timer Hackett had replaced old guard Fangio who had replaced first timer Vance Joseph who had replaced veteran Kubiak.
That would mean it’s the old guard’s turn at bat, right? Someone like Dan Quinn maybe?
Maybe they switch it up and go with the hot name/first timer they already know in their own current Defensive Coordinator Ejiro Evero? With the Broncos defense playing lights out and ranked among the best in the NFL, Evero is already on the short list for teams that are/will be looking for new head coaches. His time may have arrived.
Then again, that short list is the same one Hackett – the Offensive Coordinator for the high powered Green Bay Packers for the past three seasons – was on at the end of last season. And at the season’s halfway point, the returns aren’t so good.
The hot guy doesn’t always work…and for a Broncos organization/fan base starved for offense, you also need to factor in that the great majority of defensive coaches like Evero have tended to favor more conservative, close to the vest approaches on offense when they’ve moved into the lead chair.
So you can see the dilemma for the Walton-Penner ownership group.
Actually however, there is a really good “in between” answer sitting out there.
No such thing as a sure thing of course, but former New Orleans Saints Super Bowl winning Head Coach Sean Payton has already stated publicly that he’d be open to returning to the sidelines after spending the current season on doing TV. And he’s already been linked to the Los Angeles Chargers if that organization decides to make a change.
The Broncos simply can’t let that happen.
Fact: The Broncos filthy rich owners have the means to outbid any team on the planet for the services of any head coach of their choosing.
So if they do decide to move on from Hackett – who probably has a nice future in the league but hasn’t shown (so far) that he’s quite up to the overwhelming task of being a head coach – they need to lure Payton out of the TV studio with an offer he can’t refuse.
No other move makes sense.
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Great points. As always. What about the Broncos, with strong ownership representation of black men and women, if not at the very top, who really sought to please a league trying to diversify above field level, the Rooney Rule and the next sought after young up-and-comer already in house, continuing in that vein with Ejiro Evero to replace Hackett? Conservatism of D-minded head coaches? That is how once DangeRuss won in Seattle.