AFC Notes: Russell Wilson, Broncos, Chargers

Broncos

Broncos HC Nathaniel Hackett believes their offense simply needs more time to gel. 

“I would say for sure we need more time,” Hackett told reporters. “I think we’re in the process of we’re going to evaluate everything. We’re going to sit down as an offensive staff, we’re going to look at all of the things that we thought were good. Things that sometimes they look good, and we might not have capitalized on them, so we don’t want to necessarily throw those things out of there. We just want to find ways to get guy open and give them the opportunity to make plays. That’s what we’re looking for. We’re going to be sure we look at it with a fine tooth comb, all of us, every single one of us, to try to put those guys in the best position possible.”

Hackett spent the offseason explaining that they built their offense in tandem with QB Russell Wilson. 

“Right now, when we built the system, we built the system that was a combination of both our stuff and [Wilson’s] stuff,” Hackett said. “We wanted to be sure that we were doing it. A lot of the stuff carried over. There was a lot of stuff that we had that both he did and that I had done in the past. So we’re trying to mesh those things together. I don’t know if it’s necessarily sometimes the stuff that we’re doing, it’s just, again, those little negative plays here and there. Those things when you’re at second-and-long; you’re at first-and-long, and when we’re playing behind the chains. So I think we definitely want to take a hard look at everything that he’s done successfully and make sure we’re accommodating him as much as possible so that he feels comfortable. But at the same time, we want to do things that our players do. It’s a different team than the team that he was on in the past. So we just want to make sure we’re doing all the right stuff.”

• A coach for an NFC team told NBC Sports’ Peter King they didn’t think Hackett and Wilson were a good fit together: “That offense was not tailored for Russell Wilson. Hackett’s a guy who wants his quarterback to go all the way through his progressions.” 
• Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer says there’s a perception in some circles Wilson wants to become more of a pocket quarterback and limit his running, which is tough because his mobility has been a big reason for his past success.