Denver Broncos signs six-year CEO contract with George Paton

According to the Denver Broncos, they have finalized a six-year contract with George Paton, future assistant general manager of the Minnesota Vikings and vice president of player personnel, to become the team’s new general manager.

Last week John Elway stepped down as the team’s general manager and promoted himself within the Broncos organization. The team then began to search for and interview potential replacements for Elway. They settled on five candidates. George Paton, Bears Champ Kelly, Saints Terry Fontenot, Patriots Dave Ziegler and Broncos own Brian Stark. The last two candidates ended up being Paton and Fontenot, but in the end, the Broncos decided to hire Paton.

Paton spent a total of 14 seasons with the Vikings organization and was Rick Spielman’s right-hand man for the majority of that time. He has been a popular man when it comes to interviewing for general managerial positions for the past decade, but he ultimately decided no job was the right one and stayed with Spielman and the Vikings. Now, the Broncos have finally drawn him in to become their general manager.

NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero recently spoke to Denver Broncos own Aric DiLalla and said Paton is “one of the most respected staff men in the entire NFL.”

“George Paton is one of the most universally respected staff men in the entire NFL. [He’s] someone who – whether you talk to people who are friends with him, to people who’ve faced him, to people who know him just for scouting on the road – no one has a bad say in his subject. … Granted, there aren’t many people I can think of who would be better equipped to become GM, who – given that George was sued, I don’t even know, a dozen GM jobs. the last seven or eight years, probably – is no surprise.

Pelissero also highlights Paton’s draft CV with the Vikings. He was heavily involved in the scouting and staffing department of this team who drafted and signed some of the best players in the NFL at the moment.

“George takes trips to college. He spends time on the road. He’s also obviously very involved with the staff and worked hand in hand with Rick Spielman on a lot of different things. It’s a bit of the brain trust on the staff side, with Rob Brzezinski running much of the business [and] the salary cap is important. These are the guys who have run Minnesota for a long time. If you look at the Vikings draft record, how many Pro Bowl picks they’ve found, how many up-and-coming young players, if you look up and down the defense which over the years I can all get. list, I mean guys still around: Harrison Smith, Eric Kendricks, Anthony Barr, Danielle Hunter; guys who have evolved over the years: obviously Everson Griffen, Xavier Rhodes, Trae Waynes. They had very good players. And offensively signing Adam Thielen with a try, drafting Stefon Diggs, drafting Justin Jefferson now, drafting Dalvin Cook, who fell in the second round because people weren’t comfortable with him, and the Vikings did. all the extra homework and got comfortable. with him. It’s not all George, but he was part of this whole process. So absolutely. All you can think of [that] you need a GM to do, George was involved in it to some extent in Minnesota which makes him a really impressive candidate for other teams.

Paton receives a young offensive team that looks set to be one of the strongest units in the league. However, he has some tough decisions to make moving forward with the team. First, there will be the contracts on Von Miller and Justin Simmons.

Von is at the end of his career and has just missed the entire 2020 NFL season. Will Paton decide to leave John Elway’s first selection? Or choose Von’s option and keep him with the team for another year?

With Simmons, I think it’s a much easier decision. Paton knows what All-Pro safety means for a defense (he had Harrison Smith in Minnesota), so keeping Simmons with the Broncos has to be a priority. I don’t think we see Simmons leaving town.

After that, there are dear veterans who might fall victim to the cap. These players are defensive lineman Jurrell Casey, cornerback AJ Bouye and goaltender Kareem Jackson. Will he decide to move on from one, two or three of those veterans and free up a fair amount of ceiling space? It could go both ways.

Finally, we have the quarterback position. Will Paton be all about Drew Lock like John Elway? Or will he decide to go his own way and bring in a veteran or draft pick to be that guy? Can we see him leaving Lock completely? It could either, and will be something we’ll be talking about a lot in the weeks and months ahead of this offseason.

In the end, I like this rental by the Broncos. Paton most likely would have had a job as General Managing years ago if he wanted to, finally making him decide to pick the Broncos must make us feel good about the future of our franchise. I am delighted to have a fresh new look to lead this organization. Elway brought life and success to this team, but the past five years have been tough and changes were needed. I’m delighted to see who Paton also brings to fill his Front Office. Either way, these are exciting times for the Broncos franchise and I can’t wait to see what the future holds.

Update

John Elway comments on hiring George Paton as Broncos general manager