Since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970, only four coaches had failed to finish their first seasons on the job. Before today.
The number is now five, as former Broncos coach Nathaniel Hackett joins the club, fired after 15 of 17 games.
The others were Jets coach Lou Holtz in 1976, 49ers coach Pete McCulley in 1978, Falcons coach Bobby Petrino in 2007, and Jaguars coach Urban Meyer in 2021.
Hackett’s firing makes it consecutive years of a coach failing to finish his first year, for the first time.
For Hackett, it became obvious early in the season that he wasn’t cutting it as a head coach. It’s a fundamentally different job than coordinator. There’s only one way to know whether a coach can make the transition.
Hackett struggled with the most basic activities from the very first game of the season, struggling to get plays called and communicated on a timely basis and making confusing decisions. The fact that the team had to hire Jerry Rosburg after only two games to help Hackett manage things was a major indictment on Hackett’s capabilities.
The arrangement may have been doomed from the get go. Many believe Hackett was hired as a precursor to trading not for Russell Wilson but for Aaron Rodgers, and that Aaron Rodgers got cold feet about leaving Green Bay. Which then caused the Broncos to pivot to Wilson.
Regardless, new ownership had no reason to keep Hackett a second longer than they wanted to. They didn’t hire him. They inherited him. And now they’ve disowned him.
