Broncos coach Nathaniel Hackett focused on getting Russell Wilson comfortable

The Denver Broncos have a new head coach in former Green Bay Packers offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett and, thus, are allowed to begin their offseason program Monday. 

Of course, Hackett wasn't Denver's biggest acquisition of the offseason, as the club landed one-time Super Bowl champion quarterback Russell Wilson in a blockbuster trade from the Seattle Seahawks last month. Per Jeff Legwold of ESPN, Hackett spoke with reporters during the league's annual meetings about getting Wilson acclimated to his new football home as soon as possible. 

"It's so important to make sure he's comfortable in everything that he does," Hackett said of Wilson. "From the cadence to the way that you just call a play is so important because when you go out there and all 80,000 people are screaming at you, you want it to be natural. We do so much of the same stuff [as Wilson did with the Seattle Seahawks]. It's just about getting that language to be able to cross over."

This isn't Hackett's first figurative rodeo. He was Green Bay's coordinator under Matt LaFleur during LaFleur's first year as Packers head coach in 2019 and learned plenty from watching LaFleur's encounters and interactions with four-time NFL Most Valuable Player Aaron Rodgers. 

"I would say a lot of the stuff that Matt and I did when we first got there, has been a lot like that," Hackett explained. "It's kind of that whole process of evaluation of what I want to do as a coach compared to what the quarterback wants. It's the same thing we did with Aaron. There were a lot of great meetings that we had between the three of us on what's the right thing to do, what's better for us, and what's better for him. I think going through that process with a veteran quarterback and Matt and watching that whole thing happen was awesome."

As for Wilson, he's had multiple conversations with Peyton Manning about Manning's journey to the Broncos in 2012 following his Indianapolis Colts' tenure that ran from the 1998 NFL Draft through the 2011 season. Wilson, 33, spent his first 10 pro campaigns with Seattle.