This offseason might have been the most hectic and volatile of any in NFL history, and that was especially true in the AFC West, where seemingly every team was making aggressive gambles to try and improve their chances of contention.
Such a talented and star-studded division race has arguably never existed in the NFL before, and new Broncos head coach Nathaniel Hackett is excited to be apart of this potentially historic battle.
“I mean, it’s awesome,” Hackett said about the division’s several aggressive moves. “This is one of the coolest divisions I’ve ever seen. I’ve been in football my whole life. I go back to when my dad was in Kansas City and thinking about how good that division was with Denver. Those games were so huge. You go back to when you’re younger with the Dallas Cowboys and the New York Giants and those teams—Washington. This is one of those divisions that is hopefully going to go down in history as one of the best divisions in football.”
Hackett also believes the loaded nature of this division could lead to one of these teams hoisting the
“Last year, the NFC West was phenomenal, and somebody came out as a Super Bowl winner there. I think it’s great because you always want to test your team. You want your team to have to go through everything throughout the year no matter what. You want to play the best and work against the best because when it gets down to crunch time, you want to know how the guys are going to respond. I’m so excited about it. It’s going to be really fun.”
With a lot of the biggest additions coming on the offensive side of the ball, Hackett knows his defense is going to be tested frequently. One of the toughest tests will be the Las Vegas Raiders — who know might have the best trio of pass-catching weapons in the league — with Davante Adams, Darren Waller and Hunter Renfrow.
“I’m so excited to see [Davante Adams] two times a year,” Hackett said of the player he spent so much time with, in Green Bay. “I’m going to have a couple [of] plans for him after being with him for three years. You know, a couple [of] things. I’ll be talking with [Defensive Coordinator] Ejero [Evero] quite a bit. Davante is a great man, and there’s going to be a lot of talking going on in that game because that’s my guy and we know how to get under each other’s skin, too. It’s going to be really fun.”
The Raiders-Broncos matchups this year should be excellent.