Nathaniel Hackett has now officially been introduced to the public as the 18th head coach in Denver Broncos franchise history. He earned that title in part because of what the franchise hopes he can achieve at the quarterback position, which has long been a thorn in the side of Denver.
In finding that solution at the game’s most important position, Hackett was clear about the traits which he covets the most.
“I say toughness and intelligence [are the most important traits],” Hackett told the media during his introductory press conference. “I mean, those are the two things. Quarterbacks take some massive hits and they got to still get up, and it’s both mentally and physically. because they have to talk and they have to answer for a lot of things. It’s probably the hardest position, you know, one of the hardest positions in all football…And then intelligence is so important to be able to do the different things you would like to do on offense.”
That should come as music to the ears of Broncos Country, as a lack of toughness — both mental and physical — and a lack of intelligence have both plagued the position at times throughout the last two seasons. Hackett remedying that would be huge.
In case the Broncos do decide to remedy their quarterback woes by adding a young quarterback in the draft, Hackett also laid out his plan for helping to develop that young signal-caller.
“When you’re developing a quarterback, I think all quarterbacks, they need to have success,” Hackett said. “You need to be sure that you’re protecting them, and whenever you’re dealing with the young quarterbacks, you want to be sure — and even an older quarterback — you want to be sure you’re always protecting them. You’re protecting them, and you do that with both the offensive line and running the football. So I think that’s kind of the best way to be able to always make sure that they’re having success and able to have clean pockets.”
Hopefully Hackett’s plan works and Broncos Country is able to enjoy quality quarterback play once more.