PALM BEACH, Fla. — Nathaniel Hackett knows that on game days, he might need someone to save him from himself.
His instinct is to be bold. Go for it on fourth-and-3 from your own 32-yard line? That’s the sort of thing that the Broncos’ new head coach might do if left to his own, fire-away mindset.
But one of the attributes that has helped make Hackett a successful coach over his years rising through the NFL this has been a keen sense of self-awareness. He knew that if he got the chance that he now possesses — to call the shots as a head coach — he would need someone to rein him in from time to time.
“Yeah, I’m going to definitely need somebody to kind of tone me back a little bit, because I’m naturally an aggressive guy,” Hackett said at the NFL Annual Meeting this week.
“I love to be able to call plays. I get bored standing on the sideline. That happened a couple of times during the season — Aaron [Rodgers], myself, Matt [LaFleur, Packers coach], we’re all like, ‘Let’s get the ball!’ You just want the ball; you want to keep going. But, obviously, there’s the right thing to do it, so you’re going to want somebody to kind of be sure that you’re doing the right thing in the right situation.”
And that “somebody” will find that the “right situation” has changed a bit.
Consider this on fourth downs, for example: Last year, NFL teams went for it on fourth-and-2-to-5 yards 301 times last year — or an average of 0.553 times per game. That was a dramatic increase from the figures of 218 attempts and 0.426 times per game in 2020 and 222 attempts and 0.433 times per game in 2019.
But the percentage of plays of fourth-and-2-to-5 yards dropped precipitously from 2020 to 2021 — from 58.3 in 2020 to 52. 8 last year. The more that defenses see these situations, the better they can prepare for them.
“Now, it’s all changing, because more people are starting to go for it,” Hackett said. “So, originally, it was funny, everybody was like, ‘Oh, you’ve got to go for it in all these situations,’ but at that time, the sample size was a little less. So, I think that now, we’re seeing some great sample size as we move forward to realize that as aggressive as you want to be, you probably should hold back in certain situations.
“But it’ll be a lot of the flow of the game. I think there are certain numbers that matter, and then at the end, it’s just a guideline for how the game’s going itself.”
And then, his analytics person will be there to help remind him that discretion can be the better part of valor, as the cliche’ goes.
“At some point, we’re going to get one,” he said. There’s a guy that I know, and you know me, I like to always be a little bit different.”
Another thing that will be different: guiding the game as a play caller and running the entire team. This places him on the sidelines, from which he has called plays before.
“The good part about being down on the sideline is you get to see the guys; you get to see how they are emotionally, and you can see how you can help them,” he said. “That change is what’s unique. As a play caller, you have to be calm, you have to be relaxed. You have to be sure you’re getting the best play for the quarterback at that moment and for the whole offense. At the same time, you’re going to get fired up at times.
“I think that balance is the thing that you have to kind of negotiate down there. But again, upstairs, you don’t get to feel how the other guys are doing. They’re both great. I think there are good things about both, but now, I’m very excited to be on the sidelines as a head coach doing it.”
But that excitement will be tempered — by the voice in his headset who will provide a reasoned take to which Hackett knows he should listen.
