Early head coaching consideration “very flattering and a great honor”

First-year defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero is already getting attention as a potential head coaching candidate this offseason.

The Broncos coach’s name comes up regularly and this week was featured in an NFL Network list of candidates to watch this winter.

“Most coaches that come into the profession want to achieve that,” Evero said of one day becoming a head coach. “It’s very flattering and a great honor, but at the end of the day, I’m not worried about that. My feet are on the ground and I’m worried about trying to beat the Raiders (on Sunday).”

Denver boasts the NFL’s best scoring defense at 16.6 points allowed per game and ranks near the top of the league virtually across the board, particularly against opposing passing games.

“All the success that we’ve had is by no means just on me,” Evero said. “We’ve got a lot of great players, great coaches — great assistant coaches — and it’s a team effort. I’ve said this from Day 1, this is not my defense, this is our defense. We’re doing this together.”

Head coach Nathaniel Hackett said of Evero, one of his closest friends, “He’s done an incredible job here, that’s why we wanted him here. It’s a credit to him and his entire staff. He deserves all of that. The entire defense has been playing at a high level and he’s a great man, so he deserves all of that. Definitely don’t want to lose him.”

Wilson’s audibles: Hackett fielded a question about quarterback Russell Wilson’s work at the line of scrimmage Thursday after a report surfaced that said Wilson was confusing young players by using terminology at the line of scrimmage that they didn’t understand from his days in Seattle.

Denver’s offense is a combination of Hackett’s coaching past and Wilson’s, so it was no surprise Hackett acknowledged that some of the terminology might be similar to what Wilson had over the first decade of his career. But if it’s confusing Denver’s players, Hackett said, “That’s news to me.”

“He does have freedom at the line if he sees something to check into certain things and we’ve built this system around him,” Hackett said. “All the words he utilizes, some are from the past and some are from the new. He had an amazing audible to Jalen Virgil for a touchdown (against Tennessee). …

“He’s done everything we’ve asked and we just need to do it a higher level.”

Cold hands: When Denver and Las Vegas played in early October, the Broncos lost running back Javonte Williams on the first play of the second half to a season-ending knee injury.