Stubborn and selfish Russell Wilson will get Nathaniel Hackett fired
Nov 17, 2022, 6:37 AM
Russell Wilson and Nathaniel Hackett are like one of those celebrity marriages that burn hot and end quickly. Or, lasts about as long as your average Pete Davidson relationship.
Hackett and Wilson (can we come up with a “Bennifer” type combo?) seems destined to fail. It has been an interesting week getting a chance to pick Mark Schlereth’s mind. He dives into the coaches’ film like nobody’s business and his findings have been revealing.
Basically, the offense is a mess. It has no identity. It has nothing it can do well.
Stink blames it on the coaching, specifically, Hackett. Now, he gives an equal amount of blame to Wilson, but when pressed, my man Stink admits more of the blame goes on Hackett because he’s allowing it to happen.
This is why Hackett will ultimately lose his job and it will be Wilson’s fault.
There’s a reason we’re this deep into the season and the offense still can’t find its footing. Hackett wants to run the offense one way and Wilson wants another.
Orlando Franklin and Chad Brown say the Broncos need to get back to the “wide zone blocking and running scheme.” Wait a minute. Isn’t that the bedrock nucleus of the West Coast offense that Hackett has been groomed in for years and that he promised to us when he was hired?
Schlereth says there’s “no chance” you can run the wide zone scheme because Wilson is in shotgun too much. The Broncos threw it 40-plus times last week against the Titans in a close, low-scoring game they once led 10-0. Hackett likes to run the ball, as evidenced when he was the offensive coordinator in Jacksonville for a Jaguars team that was fifth in points scored and had the league’s No. 1-ranked rushing attack and nearly went to the Super Bowl.
So here’s my read on the situation. Hackett isn’t running his offense. He’s trying to run what Russ wants and probably was promised when he was rescued from the clutches of the evil Pete Carroll. Hackett is trying to convince Russ that less shotgun and more under center would be better. Hackett is trying to run the ball more. Hackett is begging Russ to take the easy completions that are open underneath instead of holding the ball looking for the big play and instead getting sacked and battered behind an overwhelmed offensive line.
But Russ isn’t buying in. Whatever the reason. Be it stubbornness or ego, hyper competitiveness or selfishness, Russell Wilson wants to do it his way. Even with the mounting evidence that this way isn’t working.
Sure, Hackett as the head coach should be expected to convince, cajole or flat out order Wilson to do what Hackett wants to do with this offense. And if he can’t I can see why some would believe that is grounds for being fired.
I look at it differently. Wilson is a 10-year veteran who supposedly believes in all the right things. That’s the way he talks and projects himself on social media. He once told Schlereth before a Seahawks game it was his goal to go down as the greatest winning quarterback of all-time.
Now is the time for Wilson to prove that stuff wasn’t just lip service. Put aside your ego and work with your coach. Try it his way. See what happens. Because if Hackett ends up getting fired it will because the quarterback you’ve built everything around and have catered to his every whim will have allowed this marriage to die because of stubbornness and selfishness.
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