Russell Wilson Reveals True Feelings on Coach Hackett Decision

The Denver Broncos quarterback will be more vocal in future with Nathaniel Hackett.

When it comes to Denver Broncos head coach Nathaniel Hackett's fateful 4th-&-5 decision to attempt a 64-yard field goal in the closing seconds of Monday night's 17-16 loss to the Seattle Seahawks — instead of trusting quarterback Russell Wilson to move the chains — hindsight is 20/20. Brandon McManus' kick missed its mark. 

Woulda, shoulda, coulda. 

It was eyebrow-raising to hear Coach Hackett admit the following morning that he "should have" trusted the Broncos' $245 million quarterback on fourth down with the game on the line. In the immediate aftermath of the Broncos' Week 1 loss, Wilson toed the company line, opting not to question Hackett's controversial decision while the wound was still fresh. 

Fast forward to Wednesday, however, and Wilson was singing a different tune. 

“Yeah, anytime you get the chance to win the game and solidify it and make a play, I always believe in having the ball and everything else," Wilson said from the podium at UCHealth Training Center. "We also have a great kicker and we’re going to believe in our kicker again. [I] always trust his decisions and everything else, but I’m also always ready to go try to do it if we need to.”

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Don't think for a second Wilson wasn't prepared to do what he'd done countless times before, and perform in the clutch. 

“I was prepared to, but then we said, ‘Okay, the clock is going down and we believe we can make the field goal here.’ [I’m] always prepared," Wilson said. 

Many fans wondered why Wilson wasn't more obviously challenging Hackett in the moment, or at least, more than what the ESPN cameras showed on national television. For what it's worth, Wilson may have begged to differ with Hackett in the moment and it simply wasn't captured by the TV crew. 

However it shook out between Wilson and Hackett in Seattle in the crucible of crunch time, the nine-time Pro Bowler sounded resolved to be more vocal in the future if he and the Broncos find themselves in similarly dire straights. 

“Yeah, for sure," Wilson said of speaking up. "I think—I was at the line of scrimmage ready to go for it, too. I was calling a play and we were ready to go, but that’s what we decided, and we went with it. We missed by, I don’t know, a yard maybe, maybe half a yard. It was close.”

Death by inches. 

Too soon? 

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