Why The Spotlight Shines So Much on Nathaniel Hackett
No first-time head coach has arguably entered a more high-profile situation, meaning questionable decisions get more attention.
First-year NFL head coach Nathaniel Hackett of the Denver Brocnos have received a lot of criticism for his coaching decisions.
Most notably came his decision to kick a 64-yard field goal on fourth down against the Seattle Seahawks in the first Monday Night Football game of the season. His decision came when the Broncos had about a minute left on the clock and had all three time outs.
I was one of the vast number of football fans who criticized Hackett for his decision. Since then, Hackett's decision-making process has been scrutinized, in which there are some obvious issues with the way he is coaching the Broncos.
I'm not here to defend Hackett's decision making -- in fact, I'm not a fan of much of what I’ve seen through the first two weeks. However, I did ask myself if any first-time NFL head coach has ever come with more pressure to succeed than Hackett.
Let's go back to the Seahawks game. You have a game in prime time, in which Broncos quarterback Russell Wilson is facing his former team. The Broncos trade for Wilson was the first in a series of high-profile trades. Additionally, some people have pegged the Broncos the past couple of years as a team that was a quarterback away from being a top playoff contender.
Consequently, Hackett was likely to be in the spotlight, regardless of his decision to kick that long field goal. But while any coach would likely be questioned for kicking the field goal in that situation, the fact that the Broncos acquired Wilson in a blockbuster trade, then opened the season against his former team, only made for a bigger spotlight and, thus, greater scrutiny on that decision.
To put the question about the pressure to succeed into perspective, I looked at all first-time NFL head coaches since 2011 and their quarterback situations.
By first-time NFL head coach, I mean a coach who has started his first season as an NFL head coach, other than holding an interim position. (In other words, I didn't count any interim stints in which he took over midseason for whatever reason.) I allowed for head coaches who held that position in college or the CFL, but not if they had been hired to be head coach for a previous NFL team. Thus, you won't see on this list coaches such as Mike Shanahan, John Fox or Jeff Fisher (because they previously served as head coaches and not under the "interim" tag).
I then listed these first-time NFL head coaches with the quarterback they had to open the season and any QB that was drafted that year. Quarterbacks with an asterisk (*) were new to the team that year. I also added notes to a couple of special cases.
(Note: Apologies on formatting here, I couldn’t figure out how to do tabs on Substack.)
Year Head Coach Starting QB Drafted QB
2011 Ron Rivera Cam Newton* Cam Newton
2011 Pat Shurmur Colt McCoy None
2011 Hue Jackson Jason Campbell None Note: Carson Palmer acquired in midseason trade
2011 Jim Harbaugh Alex Smith Colin Kaepernick
2011 Mike Munchak Matt Hasselbeck* Jake Locker
2012 Chuck Pagano Andrew Luck* Andrew Luck Note: Bruce Arians served as interim coach for 12 games
2012 Joe Philbin Ryan Tannehill* Ryan Tannehill
2012 Dennis Allen Carson Palmer None
2012 Greg Schiano Josh Freeman None
2013 Bruce Arians Carson Palmer* None
2013 Doug Marrone EJ Manuel* EJ Manuel
2013 Marc Trestman Jay Cutler None
2013 Rob Chudzinski Brandon Weeden None
2013 Gus Bradley Blaine Gabbert None
2013 Chip Kelly Michael Vick Matt Barkley
2013 Mike McCoy Phillip Rivers Brad Sorensen
2014 Mike Pettine Brian Hoyer* Johnny Manziel
2014 Bill O’Brien Ryan Fitzpatrick* Tom Savage
2014 Mike Zimmer Matt Cassel Teddy Bridgewater
2014 Jay Gruden Robert Griffin III None
2015 Todd Bowles Ryan Fitzpatrick* Bryce Petty
2015 Jim Tomsula Colin Kaepernick None
2015 Dan Quinn Matt Ryan None
2016 Adam Gase Ryan Tannehill Brandon Doughty
2016 Ben McAdoo Eli Manning None
2016 Doug Pederson Carson Wentz* Carson Wentz
2016 Dirk Koetter Jameis Winston None
2017 Sean McDermott Tyrod Taylor None
2017 Vance Joseph Trevor Siemian None
2017 Anthony Lynn Phillip Rivers None
2017 Sean McVay Jared Goff None
2017 Kyle Shanahan Brian Hoyer* CJ Beathard Note: Jimmy Garappolo acquired in midseason trade
2018 Steve Wilks Sam Bradford* Josh Rosen
2018 Matt Nagy Mitchell Trubisky None
2018 Matt Patricia Matthew Stafford None
2018 Frank Reich Andrew Luck None
2018 Mike Vrabel Marcus Mariota Luke Falk
2019 Kliff Kingsbury Kyler Murray* Kyler Murray
2019 Zac Taylor Andy Dalton Ryan Finley
2019 Freddie Kitchens Baker Mayfield None
2019 Vic Fangio Joe Flacco* Drew Lock
2019 Matt LaFluer Aaron Rodgers None
2019 Brian Flores Ryan Fitzpatrick* None Note: Josh Rosen acquired in offseason trade
2020 Matt Rhule Teddy Bridgewater* None
2020 Kevin Stefanski Baker Mayfield None
2020 Joe Judge Daniel Jones None
2021 Arthur Smith Matt Ryan None
2021 Dan Campbell Jared Goff* None
2021 David Culley Davis Mills* Davis Mills
2021 Urban Meyer Trevor Lawrence* Trevor Lawrence
2021 Brandon Staley Justin Herbert None
2021 Robert Saleh Zach Wilson* Zach Wilson
2021 Nick Siranni Jalen Hurts None
2022 Matt Eberflus Justin Fields None
2022 Nathaniel Hackett Russell Wilson* None
2022 Kevin O’Connell Kirk Cousins None
2022 Brian Daboll Daniel Jones None
2022 Mike McDaniel Tua Tagovailoa None
There are certainly situations that first-time head coaches faced that drew interest, though none of them involved a future Hall of Fame quarterback acquired in a blockbuster trade that same season.
But one might argue that the likes of Jackson and Shanahan came under more scrutiny after they acquired notable QBs in midseason trades. Some might point to the Eagles in Doug Pederson's first year, in which the Eagles not only made a big trade up in the 2016 NFL draft to acquire Wentz, but signed Sam Bradford to a two-year deal, made Chase Daniel the highest-paid backup QB, then later traded Bradford to the Vikings.
It's easy to point to examples such as Andrew Luck, given that the Colts made the playoffs that year. However, going into the season, the expectation was the Colts would be spending the year building toward playoff contention in 2013. That's typically been the case for most teams who have a highly drafted QB as the starter to open the season.
Yet Hackett's situation begs the questions as to whether or not others might have been thrust into a bigger spotlight if things had been different. Suppose the Niners acquired Kirk Cousins from Washington in a blockbuster trade in 2017 (Cousins was under the non-exclusive franchise tag). It's likely that Shanahan draws more attention to start the season if he had acquired Cousins in a trade, as opposed to starting journeyman Brian Hoyer with fifth-round pick CJ Beathard backing him up.
Again, it's fair to critique Hackett for his decision making, and there are plenty of decisions in which the criticism is warranted, beyond any shadow of a doubt. But if Wilson had gone to another team, it's likely Hackett's decisions draw less conversation (well, outside of Broncos fans) because the expectations are lowered if, say, Hackett was stuck with Drew Lock and a free agent QB that was the best of who was available -- and in such a case, we may not even see a game come down to Hackett opting for a 64-yard field goal.
The bottom line, of course, is that a head coach needs to learn from his mistakes if he expects to stick around for at least two seasons. But when you have a quarterback who plenty would put in the top 10, and said QB was acquired in a blockbuster trade, more eyes are thrust upon the head coach and, thus, more questions raised about his decisions.