Hackett Offers Up Cringe Response on Broncos' Offensive Identity

The Denver Broncos don't have answers to the offensive problems plaguing them.

The Denver Broncos' 2022 season was supposed to be the moment when years of playoff pain were washed away on a euphoric wave of new beginnings.

Instead, as the Las Vegas Raiders head to Denver, the Broncos are lurching inevitably towards irrelevance once again and in an ever more infuriating manner. Even with Russell Wilson at the helm — nine-time Pro Bowler and former Super Bowl champion — the Broncos' woeful offense has rendered their stellar defense completely sterile.

This week, head coach Nathaniel Hackett once again stressed the standard line that the Broncos cannot continue to put Wilson in bad spots. But the head coach continues to blame the entire offense and coaching staff, rather than just the blocking upfront. 

Wilson hanging onto the ball for too long has played a big part in it, too.

“There is always a concern. You never want to see your quarterback get hit,” Hackett said on Monday. “I think that is always something, I hate when he gets hit, but I know that he is doing everything he can out there to try and make a play."

Right now, Hackett is searching for answers that he seems incapable of providing. When asked what his offense's identity is, Hackett seemed at a loss. This team is too bad to even grasp at an identity.

“It’s not a good one," Hackett said on Wednesday. "It hasn’t been a very successful offense and we have a lot of things that we want to get better at. We want to be sure that we continue those opportunities for the guys and continually get better options for the guys. For us, right now, a lot of improvement [is needed] be able to gain that identity.”

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Yet another head coaching change for the Broncos is looking more and more likely with each passing week. Should Hackett allow the dysfunctional Raiders to sweep the Broncos, in what would be the third straight season, he might even face the firing squad as soon as Monday morning.

Thus, Hackett really has to throw whatever he's got left against the wall and see what sticks. The truth is, wristband or no wristband, Wilson looks lost in a massively rudder-less offense. Not a week goes by where Wilson isn't being served up as hot lunch behind the banged-up, but mostly incompetent, offensive line.

How to rescue the season appears to be consistently beyond the coaching capabilities of Hackett and his offensive coordinator Justin Outten. You really have to dig through some of Hackett’s comments to find any kind of indicator that he is going to try something new to facilitate the desperately needed improvements.

“We want to be sure that we look at the guys that we have that are out there," Hackett said on Wednesday. "There’s going to be a lot of different faces, potentially. We want to be sure that we take advantage of the things that they do and at the same time continually build this thing around Russell.”

Realistically, after scoring only 10 points in a losing cause, the Broncos don't have many positives to build off right now. After all, Denver's dismal 3-6 record and historically bad offense speak volumes.

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