How Will The Nathaniel Hackett Firing Impact Chiefs Vs Broncos?

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After a turbulent 15 games, the Denver Broncos have fired head coach Nathaniel Hackett. He went just 4-11 in his first ever season as Broncos head coach. Considering the roster that this team had going into the offseason, along with the moves at quarterback, tight end and defensive end, this team was built for much better results. Certainly, Denver entered 2022 with playoff aspirations. There were even a select few that thought this team could challenge for a Super Bowl appearance.

Because of the horrid results, the Broncos are going to finish with a losing record for the sixth consecutive season. It is also the seventh straight campaign in which this franchise has missed the playoffs. Of course, the last time they did was when they won Super Bowl 50. To put that in perspective, Denver had only missed the postseason in three consecutive seasons or more in two separate occasions since 1980 before this current stretch (1980-82 and 2006-10). According to Adam Schefter of ESPN, the Broncos now have the longest playoff drought in NFL history following a Super Bowl win.

How will this firing impact Sunday’s game between the Broncos and the Kansas City Chiefs? Does it allow Denver to play a different style of football? Plus, what items should the Chiefs be aware of with Nathaniel Hackett no longer in the fold?

Nathaniel Could Not Hackett With Game Management

Far and away, Nathaniel Hackett struggled mightily with game management. This was an issue from the first game of the season. Hackett’s inability to gain control in critical situations made certain parts of the roster suffer. That lasted most or all of the year. In turn, it made other parts of the team endure a greater burden on their shoulders. When the defense and some offensive skill players were over-exhausted, Denver could only achieve so much. Other items like injuries and a lack of physicality were growing issues that were somewhat out of Hackett’s control.

But nonetheless, the Broncos could never gain any momentum. Their efforts were just more and more punchless as the weeks wore on. Because of Hackett and his inability to control or lead his team, this season obviously became a massive fail for a group that had playoff aspirations. It could also cost the Broncos more heavily in the next few seasons, from a roster construction perspective.

Continuous Failures For Broncos Offense

While the game management issues were consistently bad, Nathaniel Hackett’s biggest failure was the lack of direction on offense. No one could have imagined the downfall that Russell Wilson has endured. Granted, not all of that may fall on the shoulders of Hackett. It is important to note the season-long struggles of Wilson, though. He failed to get in rhythm, struggled to read defenses and could not get in sync with his pass catchers. Nathaniel Hackett appeared to never adjust to accommodate Wilson’s skill set. It feels like the Broncos were always searching for explosive plays by using the intermediate to deep passing game, rather than starting with the short passing game and play action pass game.

That is just the passing game issues. You also have to look back at issues of getting the ball to players in space. Notably, Hackett truly failed to have any sort of direction with the offense. There were no creative tendencies that you could point to from the now fired head coach. Denver had no semblance of balance to cling to as well. When you take that into account with how good the Broncos were in scoring defense most of the season, Denver could have scratched a lot more games out than they actually did.

Some of that goes back to the aforementioned lack of situational awareness from Nathaniel Hackett. So much so, that he hired a senior assistant coach, Jerry Rosburg, as help for game and clock management. Ironically, Rosburg is now the interim head coach for the final two games of the season. Overall, Hackett was unable to set up his top skill players for success. The strengths of the pass catchers, like yards after catch ability, route running and separation were all bottled up. The spacing of the Broncos route concepts were not designed to test the defense in space, to boot. As for the running game, Hackett appeared to lack any variety with his running plays, despite the revolving door at the position this season.

Philosophical Changes Coming For Denver?

With all of that said, we say this. The Broncos are simply not going to be able to drastically change things from a schematic perspective with two games to play. Yet, Denver could certainly be more controlled and cohesive offensively with the coaching change. On top of that, you may see the Broncos be more willing to throw everything at the wall, so to speak. Trick plays, getting the ball to pass catchers quicker in space and simple pass plays may get their top weapons going.

Chiefs Will Not Look Past Any Division Rival

With or without Nathaniel Hackett, Denver is still a major rival that can make any division game more challenging. The Chiefs should have defeated the Broncos by more points than they did in Denver earlier this season. Nonetheless, the Chiefs were outscored 28-7 after Kansas City jumped out to a 27-0 lead.

You also have to wonder about how much more loose the Broncos will be playing. By having a chance to play spoiler, Denver has the possible advantage of trying to get Kansas City on their heels again. While the Chiefs usually get hot at this point in the season, they are still looking for more complete results for all four quarters, depending on the unit in certain weeks.

Regardless of what happens for KC, the Buffalo Bills and the Cincinnati Bengals play each other this week. So even with a win, the Chiefs could still be chasing something in the standings during and after this game with Denver. Therefore, the Broncos could make things nervous in Arrowhead Stadium, if they find something to lean on without Nathaniel Hackett. Kansas City will look to treat Denver as worthy challengers, accordingly.

Be on the lookout for more FPC Chiefs articles and analysis throughout this week. For more great sports and NFL content, stay tuned to Full Press Coverage.

– Braden Holecek is the Kansas City Chiefs managing editor for Full Press Coverage. He covers the NFL. Like and follow on Follow @ebearcat9//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js Follow @FPC_Chiefs//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js and Facebook.