If you’re ranking the worst head coaches in Denver Broncos history, you can make a good case for Nathaniel Hackett for the top spot.
That failure has done little to slow Hackett’s path to gainful employment, and he’ll have another new job in 2026 after the Arizona Cardinals and rookie head coach Mike LaFleur tabbed him as the team’s newest offensive coordinator.
“The Cardinals are hiring Nathaniel Hackett as their offensive coordinator, sources tell The Insiders,” NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero wrote on X on Wednesday. “Hackett, 46, was the offensive coordinator for three seasons under Matt LaFleur in Green Bay. Now, he teams up with Mike LaFleur in Arizona.”
Mike LaFleur, the younger brother of Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur, was hired as the Cardinals head coach after 3 seasons as the offensive coordinator for the Los Angeles Rams.
Hackett spent 2025 as a defensive analyst for the Packers.
Downhill Slide Following Time in Denver
In the only head coaching opportunity in Hackett’s 20-plus year career, he went 4-11 in 2022 and was fired with 2 games remaining in his only season with the Broncos.
Things continued to go downhill for Hackett after that. That slide added another chapter when he had playcalling duties stripped from him as offensive coordinator of the New York Jets just 5 games into the 2024 regular season and just 2 days after head coach Robert Saleh was fired.
Ulbrich handed playcalling duties to passing game coordinator Todd Downing, who was fired as offensive coordinator of the Tennessee Titans after they finished 30th in the NFL in total offense in 2022.
“This is more a byproduct of a different take on things,” interim Jets head coach Jeff Ulbrich told ESPN’s Rich Cimini on October 10. “I’m not saying it’s a better or worse take on things by any means, but just a different take on things, a fresh approach.”
Ulbrich kept Hackett on the coaching staff in an undisclosed role.
Making Case for Broncos’ Worst Coach, Ever
Hackett earned his shot as head coach of the Broncos after successful stints as an offensive coordinator with the Jacksonville Jaguars and Packers, where he guided the league’s highest-scoring offense in 2020 and oversaw back-to-back NFL MVP seasons for quarterback Aaron Rodgers in 2020 and 2021.
Hackett’s tenure with the Broncos was beset by problems from the start, and mostly centered around game and clock management that became such an issue that Denver had to bring in a special assistant coach to help manage that aspect of the game. Hackett also turned over play-calling duties to quarterbacks coach and current New Orleans Saints offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak midway through the season.
According to Pro Football Network, Hackett is one of 33 NFL head coaches that’s happened to since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970 — so it’s not as rare as one migh tthink.
What is rare? Getting fired before the end of your first season. That doesn’t come along very often. According to CBS Sports, Hackett was just the fifth coach since the AFL-NFL merger to get the axe in that manner and the second in 2 seasons following Urban Meyer with the Jaguars in 2021. Meyer, Lou Holtz and Bobby Petrino share the record for least amount of games at 13 each.
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