Broncos head coach candidate: Nathaniel Hackett’s busy Saturday starts by meeting with Broncos
A day after the Broncos interviewed Aaron Rodgers’ quarterbacks coach, they screened Rodgers’ offensive coordinator.
Nathaniel Hackett became the third head-coaching candidate to meet with Broncos general manager George Paton and his committee of team executives, following Detroit defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn (Thursday) and Packers quarterbacks coach/passing game coordinator Luke Getsy (Friday).
The Broncos announced around 11 a.m. Saturday they had completed their interview with Hackett, who has also met with Jacksonville and was scheduled to meet with Chicago after the Broncos. The Broncos’ traveling party flew back to Denver to plot their next moves that are dependent on the availability of the seven remaining candidates they have requested to interview.
Hackett spoke openly to the Wisconsin media Thursday about interviewing for his first head-coaching job.
“You’re always taking notes and you’re trying to figure out all the different things you’ve done throughout your career and try to get all those notes together and decide how you want to run a program,” he said. “It’s really about organizing your thoughts. You never know what they’re going to ask you and you understand you have to be yourself and speak from the heart.
“It’s not as much X’s and O’s as people would think. It’s more about the person you are, how you would lead the team, how you would handle the team.”
Hackett, 42, would bring six years of play-calling experience, including four in the NFL with Buffalo and Jacksonville, to the Broncos.
Hackett’s career reached a crossroads on Jan. 4, 2010, when he was fired along with several other Buffalo coaches. He had been coaching for seven years but had not reached the level of position coach, much less coordinator, and wondered if it was time to put the playbooks away and start using his neurobiology degree.
“I was so shocked about how football was going,” Hackett said during a November 2016 interview with The Florida Times-Union. “I had been a quality control guy for so long and it wasn’t fun like I thought it would be.”
Two days later, Hackett received a gigantic break. Doug Marrone, hired as Syracuse’s coach, called to request an interview. Marrone’s first NFL coaching job was with the New York Jets, whose play-caller was Nathaniel’s father, Paul.
Marrone hired Nathaniel as the Orange’s offensive coordinator, starting a winding road.
Three years at Syracuse. … Two years in Buffalo … Three and a half years in Jacksonville (the last two as coordinator). … And three years in Green Bay, where coach Matt LaFleur calls the plays.
Hackett graduated from high school in the Kansas City suburbs when Paul was the Chiefs’ offensive coordinator for Marty Schottenheimer. Nathaniel played college football at UC Davis (linebacker and long snapper) and wanted to become a doctor. He thought about orthopedics and was interested in working in the emergency room until he shadowed a doctor.
Hackett pivoted toward coaching in 2003 when he helped the Davis program while finishing his degree. He attended a 10-hour lab class in the morning/afternoon before going to practice.
“It didn’t hit me until I was done playing — I really enjoyed football,” Hackett said.
Hackett spent three years at Stanford. In 2006, he entered the NFL via Jon Gruden’s staff in Tampa Bay, replacing Kyle Shanahan as a quality control coach (Paul was on the Buccaneers’ staff). Next was two years with the Bills and the aforementioned phone call from Marrone.
In January 2015, after Marrone resigned as the Bills’ head coach, Jaguars coach Gus Bradley hired Hackett as quarterbacks coach and Marrone as offensive line coach.
After seven games of the ’16 season, Bradley fired play-caller Greg Olson and promoted Hackett. In nine games, the Jaguars were 22nd in scoring and 19th in yards.
“He’s definitely taught me more than any coach I’ve been around,” Bortles said in 2016.
Bradley was fired with two games remaining and Marrone was promoted to interim and then full-time coach and retained Hackett as coordinator.
In 2017, the Jaguars went 10-6 and the Hackett-directed offense finished fifth in scoring (26.1 points), sixth in yards (365.9), 17th in passing (224.5) and first in rushing yards (141.4) and rushing attempts (527). The Jaguars beat Buffalo and Pittsburgh in the playoffs, but couldn’t hang on to a 10-point lead in an AFC title game loss at New England.
Another good season in ’18 and Hackett may already be a head coach. Instead, chaos.
The Jaguars started 3-1, but a day after their seventh consecutive loss, Marrone fired Hackett and benched quarterback Blake Bortles. Hackett was blind-sided by the firing.
LaFleur hired Hackett as the offensive coordinator in Green Bay.
In the last three years, the Packers are first in wins (39), fifth in points (27.3), second in touchdown passes (113) and first in fewest interceptions (15).
“This has been such a great opportunity for me,” Hackett told reporters. “Being able to come here with Coach LaFleur has been unbelievable. To go through a lot of time as a coordinator and creating systems and coming here and learning Matt’s system and combining those two has been huge for me as a person.
“At the same time, watching the things a first-time head coach goes through has taught me so much about his position. It’s been an amazing experience.”
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