Broncos Roundtable: Is Nathaniel Hackett’s coaching staff too inexperienced?

Experience? Who needs experience?

Nathaniel Hackett certainly doesn’t need experience from his coaching staff.

When building his first staff in Denver, it’s as if Hackett didn’t just not prioritize previous coaching experience, especially at the NFL level, but that he was actively looking for inexperienced coaches.

Seven of the 11 coordinators and position coaches Hackett has brought on board will be doing their job for the first time at the NFL level this year.

Is Hackett’s staff too inexperienced?

The DNVR Crew breaks it down in the first offseason roundtable.

Is Denver’s coaching staff too inexperienced?

Zac: Absolutely, but it’s A-OK — It’s wild to believe that Hackett’s three coordinators have a combined one year of coordinating experience at the NFL level. One total year.

That, along with Hackett being a first-time head coach and many of the position coaches having the most responsibility they’ve ever had as a coach, and the Broncos’ staff is certainly too inexperienced.

But it’s okay.

What does an experience coaching staff guarantee? Nothing.

The Broncos had an extremely experienced staff the past few years under Vic Fangio. That led to 7-9, 5-11 and 7-10 seasons. Whoop-de-doo.

That experienced staff made mistakes left and right and were too stubborn to change their ways. One reason why they didn’t adjust is because their experience told them it was their way or the highway. Now pretty much all of those coaches hit the highway after the Broncos moved on from them.

What’s the worst case scenario that happens with Hackett’s inexperienced staff? They make even worse mistakes than Fangio’s staff and find a way to lose even more games? That would get the Broncos closer to the No. 1-overall pick and out of the terrible middle ground they’ve been in over the past half decade. That doesn’t sound too shabby.

The best case? Hackett’s inexperienced staff blossoms and eventually becomes a coaches breeding ground where other teams come to find up-and-coming coaches. That sounds pretty nice too.

There’s no doubt Hackett’s staff is too inexperienced. But the potential upside, as well as the massive downside, are well-worth the inexperience.

Mase: No, it’s not — What is clear about Hackett and his staff and philosophy is this: He wants to change the paradigm. Adding instructional designer John Viera — effectively a coach for the coaches, to help them better design protocols to aid in teaching — is an innovative move and shows that the old rules don’t apply. Hackett also has access to experienced counsel with Dom Capers as a senior defensive assistant, Bill Kollar remaining aboard in a consulting capacity and his father — former NFL offensive coordinator and Pitt and USC head coach Paul Hackett — always a phone call away.

That said, do not be surprised if the balance changes a bit over time. In this regard, another recent example could prove instructive.

Another branch of the Shanahan-McVay tree, Zac Taylor, had a similar staff in Cincinnati that was short on past experience when he took over the Bengals in 2019. The most-experienced coach on the staff at the time was Mark Duffner, a former college head coach and longtime NFL assistant. Duffner’s title and responsibilities — senior defensive assistant — roughly approximate Capers’ expected role with the Broncos. Taylor’s defensive coordinator, Lou Anarumo, only had a brief interim stint as Miami’s defensive coordinator on his ledger; other than that, his only defensive play-calling experience came at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy from 1992-94. Taylor did have a veteran special-teams coordinator, since he retained incumbent Darrin Simmons, who has since been promoted to assistant head coach.

But in the years that followed, Taylor added more experience. In 2020, he hired Steve Jackson as cornerbacks coach; Jackson had 19 seasons of experience on his ledger. Taylor also added former Temple and University of Miami head coach Al Golden to coach linebackers; he worked two seasons with the Bengals before joining Notre Dame’s staff as defensive coordinator last week. In 2021, Taylor brought aboard Frank Pollack as the Bengals’ run-game coordinator.

The evolution of Hackett’s staff will bear watching over his tenure.

RK: It depends — If the question is “Is Nathaniel Hackett’s coaching staff too inexperienced to succeed?” the answer is: of course not.

If the question is “Is Nathaniel Hackett’s coaching staff too inexperienced to make us feel comfortable?” the answer is absolutely.

Look, there’s no secret that this staff is eye-poppingly inexperienced, and it’s not wrong for that to be a little unsettling. Hackett is doing something totally different here, but experience does not equal success and inexperience does not guarantee failure.

Nathaniel Hackett is doing things his way, and I have a lot of respect for that. I think, in his eyes, it’s more important to have an entire coaching staff that is bought in to his vision than it is to have a couple of dinosaurs that have been saying the same buzzwords over and over for 30 years just to claim “experience.”

The truth is, if this thing fails, Hackett is going to take a ton of criticism for his rag-tag group of coaches, and it will likely be deserved. On the other hand, though, if it succeeds, Hackett may have changed the game forever when it comes to building a coaching staff.

So, is it “too” inexperienced? I say no. But it better work.