Getty Owner and CEO Greg Penner standing on the Broncos sideline.
On December 27, 2022, one day after the Denver Broncos fired head coach Nathaniel Hackett, new team owner and CEO Greg Penner and general manager George Paton held a press conference to talk about their decision to move on from Hackett and their vision for the franchise.
The press conference lasted more than 25 minutes, during which Penner and Paton discussed multiple topics surrounding the search for a new head coach for the 2023 season.
Penner didn’t wait to address the obvious — the team’s subpar performance in his first season of ownership.
“When we purchased this great franchise in August, this was not the season we were expecting, and it’s been a season that’s disappointing for our fans and what they deserve,” he told reporters. “I want to personally apologize to all our fans in all of Broncos Country. We know we need to be better, and we will.”
The expectations for the 2022 Broncos were high, given the lucrative trade for quarterback Russell Wilson, the free agent signing of defensive end Randy Gregory and the re-signing of a cornerstone player in Justin Simmons.
Along with the locker room, Penner felt they had the right guys on the roster for a successful season and one that would end seven years of bad football in Denver. Unfortunately, it just didn’t happen.
“I think the frustration obviously of a number of losing seasons is high, but I think this season it’s even higher because of the expectations that we had going in. We felt like we had a lot of pieces in place to have a very successful season,” he said. “We’ve got good players, and we didn’t put the pieces together. Our fans have been patient, I think we’ve got the best fans in the world, but we need to put a better product on the field.”
How Broncos Ownership Will Find the Head Coach
Releasing Hackett before the season ends gives the Broncos a jump start when looking for their next coach. Penner talked about the steps they would take and how it would take a team effort to get it done the right way.
“As far as our head coaching search, our owners Rob [Walton] will be involved, Carrie [Walton], Condoleezza [Rice], ‘Condee’ has great experience actually doing football searches; she was just a part of the Stanford football head coach search, so we’ll have a group of the owners that understand what our expectations are and we’ll be looking for that in a new head coach,” Penner said.
Rice is part of the Broncos ownership group and has had her name circling around the NFL in the past. On November 8, 2018, Adam Schefter reported that Rice was on the list of head coaching candidates for the Cleveland Browns, who she is a fan of. General Manager John Dorsey at the time said the rumors were false, and Rice took to Twitter afterward to reaffirm the rumors were inaccurate.
The story behind Condoleezza Rice being a head coaching candidate for the Cleveland Browns
Regarding candidates needing prior head coaching experience, Paton told reporters, “We’re going to keep an open mind through this search and if there’s a quality candidate that’s experienced, yeah, sure, certainly, but we’re not going to limit ourselves just to the experienced candidates.”
“We hope to interview Ejiro Evero for the position,” Paton said. “Obviously, experience is helpful, especially based on where we’re at as a football team, but we’re not going to limit ourselves; there’s so many other good candidates. We’re just excited to speak with them all and look forward to the process.”
Evero, 41, was offered the interim position but declined to focus on the defense for the remainder of the season. The Broncos’ defensive coordinator has never been a head coach in the NFL, but Paton doesn’t want to exclude him from their search because of that.
Fixing the Offensive Struggles Is Important but Not Everything
Hackett, 43, was brought in as an offensive mind that would help grow the team around Wilson and weapons like Jerry Jeudy and Cortland Sutton. But the season never got to a point where Wilson and Hackett were in sync with one another, operating on a level both expected coming into the season. Wilson has had career lows in competition percentage, touchdowns, and a passer rating of 82.6.
Even though Wilson’s first season has gone in a completely different direction, Penner and Paton believe Wilson and the offensive struggles are fixable but won’t be the only thing they need from their next coach.
“On offense it feels, again, I’m new to this, but as we watched the team week to week … there were times where there was not consistency so the focus needs to be on with a coach that comes in here establishing what we want to be on offense,” said Penner.
“I don’t think we made a coaching move based on Russ [Wilson],” Paton said. “That wasn’t what it was all about; that’s not why we’re getting a new coach to turn around Russ. It’s the entire organization, it’s about the entire football team, it’s just not one player.”
“I think it’s really important that whoever we hire has a relationship with the quarterback, Russ, whoever are the backups, but the entire offense as well, the entire defense,” Paton said. “We need someone to fix the special teams. Really, all three phases is what we want our coach to be an expert in, not just one person.”
Whoever the organization decides to go with in the offseason will have many pieces to put back together. The shell of the roster is a good one, headlined by young talent mixed in with veteran leadership. With the rumored list of candidates already out there, it’ll be interesting to see who fits the mold of what the owners and general manager are looking for.
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Broncos Owner & CEO Greg Penner Addresses ‘Frustration’ of Failed 2022 Season