sad news: denver broncos head coach is dead because of…..
— There was no sense delaying the inevitable. The Denver Broncos fired head coach Nathaniel Hackett on Monday morning, less than 24 hours after this once proud franchise suffered an embarrassing 51-14 Christmas Day shellacking to the Los Angeles Rams.
“It’s been a tough day, that’s for sure,” said Broncos guard Dalton Risner. “I grew to respect coach Hackett, I grew to love him and I value him so much. I love that guy. I know he’s going to have a lot of success in the future and for me it was an honor to play with him for 15 games.
Jerry Rosburg, who was hired by Hackett to help him manage game-day operations prior to week 3 of the regular season, has been named interim head coach for the final two games. The Broncos first asked defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero to serve as interim but he declined. Evero was no doubt advised that he will be a strong head coach candidate this offense and the interim deal can be risky. Usually a team doesn’t play better under interim head coaches, although Steve Wilks has done an impressive job turning around Carolina this year.
Rosburg, 67, was a 19-year NFL special teams coach, mostly with the Baltimore Ravens, until he retired after the 2018 season. He returned to coaching as a senior advisor with the Broncos’ this year. Because of his special teams background, Rosburg can oversee the overall head coaching responsibilities while the other three coordinators — Justin Outten and play-caller Klint Kubiak on offense; Ejiro Evero on defense and special teams coordinator Dwayne Stukes — can continue to be in charge of their respective phases.
Hackett didn’t even make it through the first season of his four-year contract. A 4-11 record, the No. 32 scoring offense, the mysterious struggles of quarterback Russell Wilson and the Christmas Day debacle in a standalone, nationally televised game against a similarly bad Rams team all conspired to doom Hackett.
While it was general manager George Paton who hired Hackett following an exhaustive search of 10 candidates after firing coach Vic Fangio at the end of last season, it was new owner and CEO Greg Penner who made the decision to fire the head coach.