Well, this is interesting.
As the Broncos have struggled to a 2-3 start under first-year coach Nathaniel Hackett and the Vikings have rocketed to a 4-1 start under first-year head coach Kevin O’Connell, former Broncos G.M. John Elway had made some interesting remarks to Chris Tomasson of the St. Paul Pioneer Press regarding O’Connell’s candidacy for the Denver head-coaching job.
“We interviewed him last year, and we were really, really impressed with his interview, so it does not surprise me that he’s having good success up there,” Elway told Tomasson regarding O’Connell. “He was very, very impressive in the interview process, and it was nip and tuck which way we wanted to go. So I was glad to see that he got an opportunity, and I’m glad to see he’s having the success he’s having because he gave a great interview with us.”
It’s unclear how or why Elway was speaking to Tomasson. The Vikings and Broncos don’t play this weekend, or at all this season. And the Vikings aren’t on a bye, which would be a natural occasion to drop articles unrelated to Minnesota’s upcoming opponent, the Dolphins.
“I think the system coming out from in L.A., being with the Rams, and what he learned out there, obviously he’s taken that, and I’m sure he’s putting in his own wrinkles to it,” Elway said. “But I think he’s grown up under a great base of coaching, especially offensive-minded coaches, to where he’s now taken it up there, and obviously it’s working for Kirk [Cousins]. That’s the key thing.”
Yes, this is indeed interesting. It highlights the fact that Hackett, an offensive-minded coach, has implemented a system that isn’t working for Russell Wilson, a much more accomplished and successful quarterback than Cousins.
While there may be a perfectly reasonable explanation for Elway’s remarks to a Minnesota reporter, it feels like a backhanded shot at Hackett and G.M. George Paton, the former Vikings executive who hired Hackett. It feels like a power play by Elway, who may be hoping to get back into the Denver football operation, now that the Wal-Mart crowd has taken over.
Regardless of how to why it happened, Elway’s comments speak volumes. Either he was oblivious to that possibility (and he’s smart enough to not be) or he absolutely intended it.
UPDATE 8:55 p.m. ET: Elway, we’re told, was talking to Tomasson for a story regarding former Stanford coach and longtime Vikings coach and executive Paul Wiggin. Elway didn’t reach out to Tomasson to talk about O’Connell and, by implication, Hackett.