Broncos fire head coach Nathaniel Hackett

Update: The Broncos will hand over the head coaching job for the last two games to senior assistant coach Jerry Rosburg. He had been brought in to help Hackett behind the scenes when it was apparent he didn’t have control of all the parts of head coaching an NFL team.

The Denver Broncos have let head coach Nathaniel Hackett go after an embarrassing loss to the Los Angeles Rams on Christmas Day. The Broncos lost 51-14 to a Rams team that had already been eliminated from the playoffs and were starting a quarterback who had been cut from the Carolina Panthers. But what might have been the proverbial straw to break the ownerships back was the lack of discipline by the players, as they fought on the sidelines with each other and during the game with the opponent.

Hackett, who some believe was brought in to sweeten a deal to get Aaron Rodgers in a trade, appeared over his head as a head coach from the get go. But not all the blame can go to him, as the Broncos huge offseason investment and the player to turn the team around was Russell Wilson.

The team has too much invested in Wilson to cut bait so quickly with him and their hope is that a new coach can help bring Wilson back to at least above-average ability on the field. If a head coach has his choice, he might not want to take on that job after watching this Broncos team, but most coaches don’t have that choice. We’ll see if Sean Payton has any interest, but there are plenty of other possibilities out there.