Denver Broncos coach Nathaniel Hackett struggled to handle play-calling and game-management duties through his first two games in the NFL.
Hackett was often late to get plays in to quarterback Russell Wilson, which led to multiple delay-of-game penalties. Hackett’s indecision on fourth down was clearly a problem, and he knew it.
So the coach brought in some help.
Last week, Denver hired Jerry Rosburg as a senior assistant to help Hackett with game-day decisions. The hire allows Hackett to focus on play-calling while Rosburg helps with other game-management scenarios.
Rosburg made his debut in the booth on Sunday and the Broncos defeated the San Francisco 49ers 11-10. After the game, Hackett made it clear that the new assistant was a big help.
“Yeah, Jerry was great,” Hackett said. “We had been evaluating everything on how we had been managing things up to that point. I wanted to be sure that I was able to be an efficient play caller for Russell and the offense. So we were able to bring Jerry in and for the quick time, turn around and getting him here. I thought he was spectacular. He was out there supporting me whenever we potentially had fourth downs.
“Again, he’s there because I typically want to be a little more aggressive and he kind of held me back, especially that fourth-and-inches. I was very tempted to want to go for that, but he was just talking about it and our defense was playing so well. We were able to punt it, Corliss [Waitman] did an amazing job and made a drive down the field, and we got the ball back and then had that winning score. So, I think it’s just about gaining the knowledge from everybody on the staff. I think we have a great group, and I’m getting the right information, and that’s all I can ask for, and very happy that he’s here.”
Hackett was not too proud to admit his shortcomings and he’s humble enough to lean on others to help him be a better head coach. Sunday certainly wasn’t perfect, but the team’s game-management was better and the offense did not look discombobulated like it did in the first two games.
With Rosburg now in the booth, Hackett’s operation should run more smoothly going forward.
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