Much like quarterback, right tackle has been a position of weakness for the Denver Broncos for several seasons now. To remedy that long-present need, the Broncos are signing Billy Turner away from the Packers to reunite him with former coach Nathaniel Hackett.
“Billy [Turner] is the best, man,” Hackett told the media last week. “I mean, he’s such a great dude. I think that with him—looking back at it, his experience through the flexibility and how he played—he would jump from one position to the other was something that would always blow me away. It was something I would talk to him about just how he approached it and how he works every day as a pro to be able to do something like that and play right tackle, left tackle, right guard. I mean, it’s really unbelievable. Just as a man as he is off the field is just awesome. I love him. I’m so excited to have him on our team.”
That excitement goes both ways though, as Turner made it very clear how happy he is to be back in the Mile High City, after spending a stint in Green Bay.
“Anytime you get to play for a great organization like the Denver Broncos, it’s always a special thing,” Turner said during his introductory press conference. “On top of that, [it was] being able to play for one of the better people that I’ve met in this industry and someone who I consider one of my great friends in this league—[Head] Coach [Nathaniel] Hackett and some of the other guys that were also in Green Bay. You can’t pass up on a situation like that.”
A consistent theme throughout Turner’s press conference was his admiration and love for Coach Hackett, but Turner also mentioned that some of Denver’s current players also helped lure him.
“[The Wilson trade] definitely played a factor [in my decision],” Turner said. “When you’re looking at teams and you look at situations and you look at quarterbacks out there, Russell is one of those dudes that’s going to win you a handful of games by himself. That’s the type of caliber player that he is. You throw a bunch of other people into the mix with someone like that, and you have a really good situation on your hands. Nobody wants to necessarily end up on a football team that was a one or two-win team the year prior, but you have to understand how many times in the history of the NFL that a team has gone from winning zero games, one game, 2,3,4,5 [games] to being in the playoffs and it just looks like a completely different football team the next year. [With] Wilson, [Coach] Hackett and this organization as a whole with the people I’ve met I was here—all of that played a role in me deciding to come back here.”
The Broncos are now hoping Turner can solve the right tackle position similar to how Wilson solved the void at quarterback.