It’s rare to be one-and-done as an NFL head coach.
To not make it to the end of your first season? Practically unheard of.
Nathaniel Hackett is just the fifth coach since the 1970 NFL merger to not make it through one season. He was fired by the Denver Broncos on Monday after a 4-11 start. The other four, according to Elias Sports Bureau (via Rich Cimini of ESPN): Lou Holtz of the New York Jets in 1976, Peter McCulley of the San Francisco 49ers in 1978, Bobby Petrino of the Atlanta Falcons in 2007 and Urban Meyer of the Jacksonville Jaguars last season.
Petrino quit on the Falcons to go back to college. Meyer was a nightmare off the field, as well as on it. Holtz was famously out of his depth as a pro coach and resigned with a game left. McCulley is probably the only reasonable comparison to Hackett in the modern era; he was fired after the 49ers got off to a 1-8 start and the 49ers brass wasn’t happy with the direction of the franchise.
How does it go so bad so quickly for a coach who, despite his flaws in game management, never brought any shame to the franchise like Meyer did to the Jaguars?
Here’s how it all unraveled for Hackett in Denver.
Offseason: Excitement for Nathaniel Hackett
It’s important to note there was a lot of excitement for Hackett. The Broncos interviewed 10 candidates and settled on him.
“From the start of the interview process, Nathaniel impressed us with his intelligence, his innovation, and his strong leadership qualities,” Broncos GM George Paton said on Jan. 28. “We met with Nathaniel — the initial interview was in Green Bay — and he blew us away.”
Over the offseason, the excitement would grow with a blockbuster trade for Russell Wilson. Unlike Urban Meyer, who made missteps from practically his first day on the job, there was nothing but optimism going into preseason for Hackett and the Broncos.
That excitement, and the thought that the Broncos could be a Super Bowl contender after a long playoff drought, meant there wouldn’t be much patience for a bad start.
Preseason: Some grumblings about Hackett
Hackett had the philosophy to play no starters in the preseason. That’s not rare in the NFL anymore, but Broncos fans weren’t used to it. A 42-15 loss to the Buffalo Bills was ugly and some fans were upset about Hackett’s plan to not give his starters any preseason snaps. It seemed inconsequential, and it’s probably not the reason the 2022 Broncos failed, but that’s when the discontent started.
Week 1: Hackett makes a bad decision
For many Broncos fans, they never forgave Hackett for a truly bizarre decision in Week 1. The Broncos trailed the Seattle Seahawks late, and kicker Brandon McManus had told the coaches he felt OK with a field goal attempt from 64 yards. That would have tied the second-longest field goal in NFL history. Hackett trusted his kicker, let time run down when they got in range for that 64-yarder. McManus missed.
“I have confidence in [McManus],” Hackett said after the game. “If we have to put him in that situation again, I think he’ll be able to make it.”
It was a game management fiasco. And, crazy as it may sound for a coach making a mistake in his first game, many Broncos fans were out on him after that.
Week 2: Fans get sarcastic
The Broncos weren’t good in Week 2. They beat the Houston Texans but struggled against a bad team, and there were major game mismanagement issues, like a delay of game penalty that caused Hackett to decide on a punt rather than a 59-yard field goal a week after believing McManus would be good from 64 yards out. Through the game, Hackett’s decisions were ripped on social media. Broncos fans mockingly counted down the play clock when the team was on offense after delay of game penalties. It was pretty shocking to see a fan base turn on a coach in a public manner like that. And it was only Week 2.
Shortly after that the Broncos hired longtime NFL assistant Jerry Rosburg to help with game management, and that was just another sign that Hackett was in over his head. Rosburg reportedly ended up being named the interim head coach after Hackett’s firing.
Week 5: Fans leave before OT
The Broncos were 2-2 for a Thursday night game against the Indianapolis Colts. The offense struggled again, and it was time to wonder if Hackett and Wilson could figure it out. The game was tied 9-9 going into overtime when Broncos fans started leaving. Broncos fans are as invested as any fan base in the NFL, and again: They were leaving before their 2-2 team played overtime. The Broncos lost in that overtime.
It was probably the first time fans outside of Colorado got an idea of how angry Broncos fans were with the direction of the team.
November: No wins for the Broncos
After that overtime loss to the Colts, all hope for the Broncos being good in 2022 disappeared. They fell to 2-5. A win in London over the Jacksonville Jaguars was a sign of hope, but the Broncos lost five in a row after the bye week. They didn’t win in November. The offense scored 10, 16, 10 and 9 points in the four games after the bye. Wilson became one of the NFL’s worst quarterbacks after a huge trade and $242 million contract extension. That was a bad look for the coach who came to the Broncos with an offensive background.
Before a Nov. 20 game against the Las Vegas Raiders, Hackett gave up play-calling to quarterbacks coach Klint Kubiak. The regular season was a little more than two months old and the Broncos had already hired Rosburg to help Hackett with game management and Kubiak was calling plays. It was hard to figure out what Hackett was adding.
December: Broncos sink further
The Broncos trailed the Kansas City Chiefs 27-0 in the first half on Dec. 11 and if they hadn’t rallied to make a game out of it, Hackett might have been fired then. The Broncos lost 34-28 and many fans looked at that as a big step forward. It showed how the low the bar was.
Denver did beat an Arizona Cardinals team down to its third-string quarterback a week later, though it had to be alarming to the team’s new owners that there were more than 18,000 no-shows for the home game. Fans had moved on from anger to apathy.
Still, Hackett might have survived the season if not for what happened on Christmas. The Broncos had one of the worst days a team can have against the Los Angeles Rams, who came into the game with a 4-10 record. Denver lost 51-14. They showed little fight, except when backup quarterback Brett Rypien argued with the offensive linemen on the sidelines and they yelled back. Wilson was awful, as he has been most of the season. It was one of the most embarrassing losses in Broncos history.
It wasn’t a big surprise on Monday when the Broncos fired Hackett, even if it had been 44 years since a first-year coach was fired under similar circumstances during the season. It was clear that Hackett wasn’t turning things around and fans weren’t going to ever be OK with him coming back for a second season.
For many of those fans, it’s a move they had been calling for since the first two weeks of the year.