When the Denver Broncos hired Nathaniel Hackett this offseason, he was dubbed an offensive mind who could help turn around the team’s underwhelming offense.
Hackett has done just the opposite.
Denver’s offense is even worse than before Hackett arrived, as the team has scored just 14.6 points per game this season, fewer than any other team in the NFL. With merely a component offense, the Broncos could be in the NFL’s playoff picture, but Hackett’s unit is holding the team back.
After a 17-10 loss to the Tennessee Titans on Sunday, Hackett admitted that accountability for the team’s struggles falls on him.
“It’s about accountability,” the coach said. “It’s about holding myself accountable first, the coaches accountable and the players accountable. As long as we point the things out that we can correct and get better on, and everybody understands what that is and what we need to do to be able to go on a run at some point during the season.”
What exactly that accountability looks like remains to be seen. During his media availability on Monday, Hackett was asked if accountability will lead to consequences for poor results.
“I think we are evaluating everything,” Hackett said. “First, it starts with me. We have to make sure that the play calls are the right play calls and the ones that are going to put the guys in the right position to be successful. We will evaluate that. We will evaluate everything that we do.
“We are 3-6 and we are not where we want to be. Nobody is accepting that, and that’s not the standard that we want to be. We are not scoring enough points. It’s that simple. We have to find a way to do that, so we will evaluate everything and every person across the board.”
One notable way that Hackett could accept accountability is by admitting that his play calling has not led to positive results, and a consequence for that could be handing over the playsheet to another coach. There’s been no word that Hackett plans to do so, at least not yet.
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