Denver Broncos signs George Paton for six-year contract as general manager

According to the Denver Broncos, they signed a six-year contract with the future assistant general manager of the Minnesota Vikings and vice president of team players, George Paton, to be the new general manager of the team.

Last week, John Elway stepped down as general manager of the team and promoted himself within the Broncos organization. The team then started looking for and interviewing possible substitutes for Elway. They chose five candidates. George Paton, Bears Champ Kelly, Saints Terry Fontenot, Patriots Dave Ziegler and Brian Stark of the Broncos himself. 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 most of that time. He has been a popular man when it comes to interviews for general management positions for the past decade or more, but he finally decided that no job was right and stayed with Spielman and the Vikings. Now, the Broncos have finally lured him to be their general manager.

Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network recently spoke to Denver Broncos himself, Aric DiLalla, and said that Paton is “one of the most respected men in the entire NFL”.

“George Paton is one of the most universally respected men in the entire NFL. [He’s] someone who – whether you want to talk to people who are friends with him, people who have competed against him, people who know him only from Scouting on the road – no one has a bad word to say about him. … Certainly, there aren’t many people I can think of who would be better equipped to be a GM, which – considering that George was wanted, I don’t even know, a dozen or more GM jobs over the past seven or so eight years, probably – not a surprise. “

Pelissero also highlights the outline of Paton’s curriculum with the Vikings. He was heavily involved in the selection and staffing department of that team that designed and hired some of the best NFL players at the time.

“George takes trips to college. He spends a lot of time on the road. He is also obviously very involved with the staff and has worked side by side with Rick Spielman on many different things. That’s kind of the brain trust on the staff side, along with Rob Brzezinski, who handles a lot of business [and] the salary cap is important. These are the guys who have been in charge of Minnesota for a long time. If you look at the Vikings draft record, the number of Pro Bowl choices they’ve found, the number of young and rising players, if you look up and down the defense that, over the years, I can list all them, I mean, the guys who are still there: Harrison Smith, Eric Kendricks, Anthony Barr, Danielle Hunter; of guys who have changed over the years: obviously Everson Griffen, Xavier Rhodes, Trae Waynes. They had very good players. And offensively, taking Adam Thielen out of a test, recruiting Stefon Diggs, recruiting Justin Jefferson now, recruiting Dalvin Cook, who fell for the second round because people weren’t comfortable with him, and the Vikings did all the extra homework and were comfortable with it. That’s not all, George, but he participated in the whole process. So, absolutely. Everything you can think of [that] you need a GM to do it, George is involved with it in some way in Minnesota, which makes him a really impressive candidate for other teams to consider. “

Paton is receiving an offensive youth squad that looks set to become one of the league’s strongest units. However, he has to make some difficult decisions to move forward with the team. First, it will be the contracts of Von Miller and Justin Simmons.

Von is at the end of his career and is missing out on the entire 2020 NFL season. Will Paton decide to proceed with the selection of John Elway’s first draft? 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 an All-Pro security means to a defense (he had Harrison Smith in Minnesota), so keeping Simmons with the Broncos should be a priority. I don’t think we see Simmons leaving town.

After that, there are some high-priced veterans who can fall prey to cap. These players are striker Jurrell Casey, cornerback AJ Bouye and safety Kareem Jackson. Will he decide to move on with one, two or all three veterans and open up a good deal of space on the cap? I could go anyway.

Finally, we have the position of defender. Is Paton going to bet everything on Drew Lock like John Elway was? Or will he decide to go his own way and bring in a veteran or recruitment candidate to be that guy? Can we see him leave Lock completely? It can be anyway and it will be something that we will talk about a lot in the coming weeks and months of this off-season.

In the end, I liked that signing by the Broncos. Paton would probably have a job as general manager years ago, if he wanted to, if he finally decided to choose the Broncos it would make us feel good about the future of our franchise. I am excited to have a new pair of eyes running this organization. Elway brought some life and success to this team, but the past five years have been difficult and changes were needed. I’m excited to see who Paton brings in to fill his Front Office as well. Anyway, these are exciting times for the Broncos franchise and I’m excited to see what the future holds for us.

Update

John Elway comments on hiring George Paton as general manager of the Broncos

Update

The Broncos’ new GM, George Paton, releases a statement.