Who will Nathaniel Hackett hire as his coordinators?

Now that the Denver Broncos have hired their 17th full-time head coach in franchise history, the next step in the process is filling out the coaching staff. Shortly after reports broke that Nathaniel Hackett will be George Paton’s hire as head coach, NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport and Mike Garafolo reported that the Los Angeles Rams’ Ejiro Evero is the favorite to become defensive coordinator and the Green Bay Packers’ Adam Stenavich will interview to become offensive coordinator.

The Washington Post’s Nicki Jhabvala reported Evero and Hackett are best friends dating back to their playing days together at UC Davis. Evero got into coaching at his alma mater as an assistant coach. He made the jump to the NFL as one of Jon Gruden’s defensive quality control coaches with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2007. He remained as a QC when Gruden was replaced by Raheem Morris in 2009, but left for the San Francisco 49ers in 2010.

Evero stayed by the bay until 2015, working under Mike Singletary, Jim Harbaugh, and Jim Tomsula. During this time he worked as a quality control coach as well as an assistant coach for both the defense and offense. Following Tomsula’s one season as head coach, Evero was hired by Mike McCarthy to serve as a quality control coach with the Packers.

After one year in Wisconsin, Evero moved to Los Angeles to join Wade Phillips staff as a safeties coach. He retained his post after Phillips was fired in 2019, and worked under Brandon Staley during the 2020 season. When Staley left to become the Los Angeles Chargers head coach, Evero was promoted to secondary coach / pass game coordinator by Raheem Morris and Sean McVay.

It’s worth noting that Evero’s varied experience makes it a bit tricky to predict what changes are coming for the Broncos’ defense. Phillips defensive philosophy is quite different than what the Broncos have used under Vic Fangio the last three years, while L.A.’s system since has a lot of overlap.

Stenavich entered the NFL as an undrafted free agent in 2006 after playing tackle for the Michigan Wolverines. He retired from playing in 2010 after wearing four NFL jerseys and playing a stint with the Amsterdam Admirals of the now defunct NFL Europe.

Two years after Stenavich’s playing career came to an end he became a graduate assistant with the Wolverines. In 2013 he left Michigan to become Northern Arizona’s offensive line coach and stayed one season before moving on to the same position with San Jose State. Stenavich made the jump to the NFL in 2017 when he joined Kyle Shanahan’s 49ers as an assistant offensive line coach under offensive line coach John Benton. He left San Francisco to become the Packers offensive line coach in 2019.

One aspect that should help Nathaniel Hackett secure both his coordinators is the fact that they all share the same agent.