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Things are not going as planned for the Denver Broncos. Nathaniel Hackett was hired as Denver’s head coach because of his high energy and hopes of getting the Broncos’ offense back to elite form.
Instead, the Broncos are averaging 15.2 points per game which ranks dead last in the NFL. Denver’s offense also ranks last in redzone scoring and 30th in third-down conversions.
With the scheme not working on offense with Russell Wilson at quarterback and the number of coaching mistakes Hackett has piled up, former Super Bowl 50 champion Derek Wolfe thinks that the Broncos should fire Hackett and bring in Super Bowl winning head coach Gary Kubiak.
On Wolfe’s radio show on 104.3 The Fan in Denver, the former defensive lineman said he would make a coaching change after the bye week.
“I’d be on the phone with Gary Kubiak right now.” Wolfe added, “Kubiak is the perfect coach to come in here and help fix this. He’s the perfect guy to bring the locker room back together, he’s the perfect guy to get the play calling back.”
Kubiak is Still Connected to the Organization
Even though Kubiak isn’t in the team’s facility daily, the former head coach still has connections within the building.
Kubiak’s son Klint is the quarterback coach for the Broncos and is trying to find ways to get Wilson out of his offensive slump. If Denver needed their Super Bowl winning head coach to come in and call plays, his son already knows the playbook and is an expert with it after the father-son duo spent two years together with the Minnesota Vikings from 2019-2020.
Klint became the offensive coordinator for the Vikings last season after his dad stepped away from the team. Minnesota owned a top 15 scoring offense last season under Klint during his first time as an offensive coordinator.
Speaking of Minnesota, Gary has a strong connection with Denver’s general manager George Paton. Kubiak and Paton spent two years together with the Vikings before Paton took the job with the Broncos.
Kubiak also has a connection with Broncos’ senior assistant, Jerry Rosburg. In 2014, Kubiak was named the offensive coordinator for the Baltimore Ravens and built a solid relationship with Rosburg.
After the dysfunctional decision making early in the season for Hackett and the offense, the Broncos went out and hired Rosburg to help on the in-game decision making.
According to a source, Paton has talked with Kubiak throughout this season and has gotten football advice on how to fix the problems for this struggling team.
Kubiak’s History with the Broncos
The Broncos would not have three Lombardi Trophies in their trophy case if it wasn’t for Kubiak.
After backing up Denver’s Hall of Fame quarterback John Elway for nine seasons, Kubiak decided to retire as a player and get into coaching. Getting his feet wet as the running backs coach for Texas A&M for two years, Kubiak joined the San Francisco 49ers coaching staff with future Broncos head coach Mike Shanahan.
Once Shanahan was hired as the head coach of the Broncos, Kubiak tagged along and was hired as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. Kubiak worked closely with Elway as the Broncos won back-to-back Super Bowls in 1998 and 1999.
In 2006, Kubiak would leave Denver to become the head coach of the Houston Texans where he spent eight seasons before being fired and hired by the Ravens as their offensive coordinator.
One year later, Kubiak was brought back to the place where he had the best success as he took over a team that couldn’t get over the hump to win the Super Bowl.
Once again, Kubiak would get to work with another Hall of Fame quarterback in Peyton Manning. Though Manning didn’t exactly fit into Kubiak’s offensive scheme, the two worked together to find some middle ground and put together a playbook that would put the offense in the right situations to have success.
During the season, Manning went down with a foot injury that sidelined him for six weeks. This meant that Kubiak would have to manage quarterback Brock Osweiler. Losing just two games with Osweiler as the starter, Kubiak had to make a crucial decision in the final game of the regular season.
Denver’s offense had turned the ball over five times under Osweiler and Manning was sitting on the bench ready to get his team back. Kubiak made the call to put Manning into the game and that led to a Broncos victory and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.
Kubiak would lead his Broncos past Philip Rivers, Tom Brady, and league MVP Cam Newton as the Broncos became Super Bowl champions for the third-time ever.
Kubiak became the first person to have played in a Super Bowl and win it as a head coach both with the same team.
The following season, Manning would retire and the Broncos would draft Paxton Lynch in the first-round of the 2016 NFL Draft. Kubiak knew it was going to take time to develop the rookie quarterback, so he went with 2nd-year quarterback Trevor Siemian.
In 2016, Kubiak would lead his Broncos to a 9-7 record. Denver would barely miss the playoffs and Kubiak decided it was best for him to step down from the team due to health issues. This was also the last time that the Broncos finished the season with a winning record.
A few years later, Elway brought Kubiak back in a consulting role with the team before Kubiak left for Minnesota.
It’s fair to say that if Paton wanted to bring another asset to the team, Kubiak might be the right guy after all. Kubiak has a career head coaching record of 82-75.
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