Clayton: George Paton’s busy week sets up a lot of work for Vic Fangio

It’s been a wild week of roster moves by general manger George Paton and the Broncos.

First, to fill the void for all the loses at linebacker, they traded for Stephen Weatherly and Kenny Young. Then, they stunned everyone Monday by trading linebacker Von Miller to the Los Angeles Rams, leaving the linebacker position missing it’s four starters from the beginning of the season.

On Tuesday, they traded cornerback Kary Vincent, a seventh-round pick to Philadelphia. There’s more. Tight end Noah Fant went on the COVID-19 list. Cornerback Bryce Callahan went on the injured reserve.

While Vic Fangio concentrates on keeping the current roster together, Paton started working on next year with the three draft choices acquired in trade in the past two days. With those trades the Broncos are in a strong position in the 2022 draft. They now have 10 draft choices. The only original draft choices they are missing is in the sixth and seventh rounds.

But they have extra picks in rounds two, three and fifth. They acquired seventh round picks from Detroit and San Francisco. So they have two seconds, two third and two fifths.

The Broncos have 21 unrestricted free agents next year and plenty of key players. In a year that the salary cap went down eight percent to $182.5 million, the league average is a little above 20. The list of names free agents include cornerback Kyle Fuller, Bryce Callahan, Melvin Gordon, Kareem Jackson, Teddy Bridgewater, Bobby Massie, Tim Patrick, Courtland Sutton, Alexander Johnson, Josey Jewell, and new acquisitions Weatherly and Young.

Fangio has a lot of work to do. Paton has a lot of work to do. Stay tuned.