The Denver Broncos' Week 1 loss to the Seattle Seahawks was undoubtedly disappointing. The Broncos were considered to be heavy favorites to win, making the loss sting that much more. And to make matters even worse, the Broncos had countless opportunities to take the lead, and even win. But they just could not properly cash in on those opportunities.
Russell Wilson's return to Seattle ended less than ideal. But despite the outcome of the game, it is not a cause for panic…yet.
Broncos takeaways from Week 1 loss vs. Seahawks
No, the Broncos don't need to fire Nathaniel Hackett.
There is a surprising amount of fans in Broncos Country calling for the firing of head Coach Nathaniel Hackett. Claims like this after one week in the regular season are extreme overreactions. In fact, to be worried about the Hackett era after one game is also an overreaction. There is no saying where we will be as a team weeks from now, or a few seasons from now. But to phone it in after he's coached one game is silly.
Hackett is a rookie head coach. To expect his first year in charge to go off without a hitch is just unreasonable. One of Hackett's biggest criticisms for the loss was his mismanagement of the game. He did seem to look a little lost at times, and he greatly botched the timeout situation at the end of the game. He even admitted to his timeout mistake after the game. Growing pains like this will come with a rookie head coach. Ideally, over time, he will learn from these mistakes and fix his approach for future situations.
The Broncos seriously need to address their middle linebacker situation
The Broncos were expected to head into the game against the Seahawks relatively healthy, until the team announced starting linebacker Josey Jewell would miss the game with an injury. Jewell, who has had some injury issues as of late, missed a majority of last season with a torn pectoral. The team is already alarmingly thin at the middle linebacker position, so losing a starter before the game was extremely unfortunate.
Alex Singleton was thrown into the starter gig, and the Seahawks quickly took advantage of arguably the Broncos' biggest positional weakness on the team. Singleton frequently missed tackles, and pass catchers frequently ran past him. For at least the first half of the game, the middle of the field was alarmingly open for the Seahawks to exploit. Singleton, who did most of his damage on special teams while he was with the Philadelphia Eagles, clearly looked lost during a good portion of the game.
The Broncos were sliced and diced by all of the Seahawks' tight ends. And the Seahawks' tight ends aren't much to write home about anyways. So the fact that they easily diced up the Broncos' defense is rather embarrassing. The Broncos are also in a vicious AFC West division that includes tight ends Travis Kelce and Darren Waller. If they don't address the depth at middle linebacker soon, Broncos' opponents will take advantage of it all season.
Wilson is a $245 million dollar QB. Please use him in mandatory fourth-down conversion situations.
This seems like a bit of a given, yeah? The Broncos signed Wilson to a five-year, $245 million dollar extension before he even played a regular-season snap for the orange and blue. The Broncos clearly expressed their trust in Wilson's ability to succeed by signing him to the mega contract. So why not trust him on a crucial 4th and 5 situation?
Instead of allowing Wilson to attempt the conversion, the Broncos opted to let kicker Brandon McManus try for a long 64-yard field goal, which he missed. Also during this time, as Hackett admitted eventually, the Broncos botched the timeout situation near the end of the game, allowing precious time to flutter away.
With the success the team had moving the ball down the field all game, they really had a decent chance at successfully converting. Unfortunately for the Broncos, a successful conversion on that fourth down would have likely won the Broncos the game (despite the time situation.) The conversion would have gotten the team closer into McManus's wheelhouse.
Should the Broncos find themselves in a similar situation again in the season, hopefully, Hackett will trust in Wilson more.
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