Broncos Introduce Three Coordinators

Tuesday Broncos Head Coach Nathaniel Hackett introduced his 3 new coordinators. Justin Outten will coordinate the offense alongside Hackett, Ejiro Evero, will call the defense, and Dwayne Stukes will handle the Special Teams.

Neither Outten, nor Evero have ever been a coordinator. Stukes, who won a Super Bowl as a player with Tampa Bay in 2002, was thrust into duty in 2011 as the Buccaneers Special Teams Coach. So of the 3 Coordinators, that lone year is the only season any have served in their new role in Denver.

Outten followed Hackett from Green Bay where he served as Tight Ends Coach the last 3 seasons. Evero, who was Hackett’s college teammate at UC Davis, comes to the Mile High City fresh of helping the Rams win Super Bowl 56 as the Secondary Coach and Defensive Passing Game Coordinator, and Stukes was also a part of the Rams staff as the Assistant Special Teams Coach. Also, Evero, Stukes and Hackett all overlapped in 2007 in Tampa when they were all low-level assistants.

Outten, and the offensive staff are tasked with jumpstarting a unit that has been mired in mediocrity or worse really since Peyton Manning was at the helm in 2014, a year before winning Super Bowl 50.

Since the Sherriff hung up his shoulder pads, the Denver offense has ranked 22nd, 27th, 24th, 28th, 28th and last year 23rd.

"Our goal is to score points here. That’s how you win football games," Outten said. "You have to be creative. You have to get the ball into play makers hands. Said the game plans will change each and every week depending on the defense."

Evero’s pedigree is as good as any young assistant to come along and take over a unit. He’s worked with some Super Bowl winning Head Coaches like Sean McVay, Mike McCarthy and Jon Gruden, and directly under some of the greatest defensive minds in the history of football, including Monte Kiffin, Wade Phillips, Vic Fangio and Dom Capers(who will serve as a consultant on Hackett’s staff.

Evero said they want to be "situational masters," and that the defense will look similar to a unit that was Top 3 a year ago. "We'll be 3-4 in our base defense. There will be a variety of sub packages, there will be a lot of carry over from what these guys did last year. The scheme has gotta fit your players, you can't go the other way with that....I think the players will be familiar with what we're gonna ask them to do."

Stukes was a standout special teams player, and after that year in 2011 in Tampa, he spent the next year as a defensive coaching intern in Dallas, because Joe DeCamillis convinced the Cowboys just to bring him. He then followed the former Broncos Super Bowl 50 Spec. Tms Coordinator to Chicago, Jacksonville, and eventually Los Angeles. Understandably, Stukes appreciates what he learned from DeCamillis, who's also son-in-law to the late Dan Reeves. "Joe D is a mentor to me," Stukes said, "I have a lot of love and respect for Joe D. He's taught me a lot about football, he's taught me about strategy, he's taught me a lot about analytics, he's taught me about just game management. Things that my first time as a coordinator I didn't think about or consider. Yeah, you think about it but to actually have a guy who has 33 years of experience has been beneficial for my career."

All 3 Coaches were asked about Hackett's energy and why they wanted to join him in Denver. "[Head] Coach [Nathaniel] Hackett is one of a kind," Outten said. "I love talking just football with him because a big piece of it is connecting with people. No matter what background or where you’re from—just finding a way to connect with people, whether it’s a common interest or conversation. He loves movies, so he connects with a lot of movie guys. I don’t watch films—or TV period—so we connect on a different level. The way he goes about his business. First of all, he’s a master organizer. I’ve never seen somebody more organized than him. He takes pride in it, and the efficiency that comes out of it is unbelievable. There’s no wasted work. There’s a purpose to everything that he does. I tried to replicate that after I saw that. It just made me better and the guys around us better by seeing the organizational factors that come into it and the production that comes out of it."

Evero echoed those sentiments as well, "I think a lot of people know about Nathaniel’s personality, the connectivity, and all that stuff," Evero said. "I think what a lot of people are going to learn is how direct he is. He doesn’t shy away from anything. He takes problems on head on, and that’s probably what I appreciate most about him. He’s one of a kind—I can attest to that. He doesn’t shy away from anything."

Stukes was in lock step with his fellow coordinators when it comes to Hackett, "I’ve known ‘Nate’ (Head Coach Nathaniel Hackett) since 2006, and he’s been consistent ever since I met him," Stukes said. "The funny thing about Nate—he makes people feel comfortable, and he’s not uncomfortable in the situation. There have been multiple times—I’m not going to bring up to certain situations that we had early on. That’s what attracted me to Nate as far as a friendship because I’m more of a to myself type person. Maybe some people call me an introvert, but he’s outgoing. He kind of broke my wall down, per se, and had me sharing his office. It was really his office. I got hired late and I used to always just go in there and hang out with him. I learned a lot from. I know he’s a family man. I know he’s passionate about football. I know he’s energetic. I know he’s highly intelligent, and I know he likes to have fun. He is a big kid regardless of how he walks around here. He smiles all the time, and he never has a bad day—or at least I’ve never seen him have a bad day. You can admire somebody like that, right? [He’s] somebody who is always coming to work and be consistent. That’s what a leader should be, and that’s what he is. As far as getting the call—like Ejiro said, it was after the Super Bowl, and I was excited."