Greg Penner takes full control of Broncos, will lead important coaching search
ENGLEWOOD • When Greg Penner and his family bought the Broncos in August, he never expected to lead a coaching search less than five months later.
The Walton-Penner ownership group thought they had a purchased a football team bound for the playoffs, led by highly touted and offensive-minded coach Nathaniel Hackett and nine-time Pro Bowl quarterback Russell Wilson.
But after only their 15th game as the Broncos’ new owners, they were, in their words, “embarrassed” following a 51-14 loss to the Rams on Christmas Day, which included teammates fighting each other, a player punching an opponent and a coach that had lost control of his team.
For an ownership group that had led one of the world’s most successful corporations in Walmart, they knew there had to be consequences. That’s why they fired Hackett Monday morning.
“We would have liked to have been patient until the end of the season to make a decision at that point,” Penner said Tuesday. “But after the effort that we put forward on Sunday and some of the things that were going on off the field, we just felt like it was time to make a decision. Once we had made that decision, it was in all fairness to the organization and to Nathaniel. We felt we needed to move forward and make the change.
“Sunday was an embarrassment to our organization. The players feel that way about it — as do the staff, ownership, everyone — but it wasn’t just about Sunday. It was about the full body of work. For a number of reasons, this just wasn’t the right fit.”
Penner is now in charge of finding the Broncos’ next coach, the organization’s fifth coach in eight years. And make no mistake — this will be Penner’s decision. George Paton, the general manager who led the search last year, will aid Penner in the search, but Penner is now the lead man. The new coach will report to Penner, too, making him the head of football operations for the team instead of Paton.
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Paton admitted Tuesday he is to blame for Denver’s downfall this season, saying, “I take full responsibility for where we are as a football team. I brought in the head coach, and I brought in most of the players. Those are my decisions and there’s no one to blame of me.”
Paton is sure to still be heavily involved in the day-to-day operations, but Penner has officially taken control of the organization from top to bottom.
“George and I have had the chance to get to know each other. We talk every day since we purchased the team a number of months ago,” Penner said. “He acknowledged right up front that there were a couple of decisions that haven’t worked out as he had expected, but I understand his thought process. He understands the work that needs to be done in this offseason, and I’m going to rely on him heavily as we go through and make these changes.”
How Penner conducts this search will be an interesting follow, as he’s never owned a professional sports team before. A businessman at heart, he’ll lean on his experience in the business world to help him find the best person — not just coach — to get the Broncos back to their winning ways.
“I’ve worked with a lot of great CEOs, and it starts with really strong leadership,” Penner said. “That’s going to be the most critical factor here in a head coach. Obviously, the X’s and O’s are important, but we need a strong leader for this organization that’s focused on winning. That starts with culture. It’s instilling a sense of accountability and discipline. We need an identity on offense. At the starting point, it has to be about culture and leadership. Those characteristics are what we’ll be focused on the most.”
Resetting the organization’s culture is a must with this hire. The Broncos show six straight losing seasons and seven consecutive seasons of missing the playoffs. That’s why Penner and the Broncos might go a different direction with this hire than their previous three coaches.
Vance Joseph (2017-18), Vic Fangio (2019-21) and Hackett (2022) were all first-time coaches and considered experts in their respective field — defense for Joseph and Fangio and offense for Hackett. All three failed.
Penner and Paton said they won’t limit themselves to coaches with prior experience.
“If you have experience, it helps,” Paton said. “It certainly helps, but it’s not necessary.”
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Currently, the leading candidates are believed to include Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn, former Saints coach Sean Payton, University of Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh and Broncos defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero, who Penner and Paton said they hope to interview for the job, among others. The timeline for a decision is unknown, with Penner emphasizing they will be thorough with the search knowing they “have to get this right.” Last year, Hackett was officially hired Jan. 27.
For now, the Broncos have games left against the Chiefs and Chargers while Penner starts searching for the team’s next head coach. And while Penner has never done this before, he does appear to be the right man for the job, making it clear Tuesday his focus is on winning and demanding excellence.
For the first time since former owner Pat Bowlen passed away in 2018, it feels like the Broncos finally have some sort of direction led by ownership.
“I’m a big believer that if you start with the right culture, (the right) people, and you have the resources and expectations, we can build a winning football team here again,” Penner said. “It does start with ownership, and the ownership being clear about what the expectations are and what the standard is. Part of this decision was seeing something that wasn’t up to our standard and making the decision to move forward and have that clear to the whole organization.”
And the message was clear Tuesday: Penner is the man in charge, and he means business.
Broncos chief executive officer Greg Penner, back, looks on as general manager George Paton responds to a question during a news conference Dec. 27 in Englewood.
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