George Paton is still the Broncos general manager, for now

The Denver Broncos are keeping general manager George Paton in place, for now. The organization held a postseason press conference on Tuesday in which they laid out their lack of decisions thus far and how they will continue to evaluate many things in the coming weeks. Among the topics is Paton’s gig, which he got a solid backing from head coach Sean Payton.

“We communicate two, three or four times a day,” Payton said about Paton. “It’s worked out well.”

Paton, 53, has been on the job for three years and could now be entrusted with a first-round pick for just the second time. The executive traded two for Russell Wilson and another for head coach Payton. After the giant trade for Wilson, Paton subsequently gave Wilson one of the richest contracts in the history of the league. And now Paton, if he sticks it out, will be the one to figure out how the Broncos will distance themselves from Wilson and move forward without him—before that extension even kicks in.

Paton will forever be linked to the veteran star quarterback. Now that it’s official that not only the trade but the extension didn’t work, the Broncos will be significantly hampered moving forward as they need to eat over $80 million in dead money and are short on high-impact young players from the lack of draft picks.

Paton has worked with three full-time head coaches while in Denver. He made the disastrous hire of Nathaniel Hackett after he fired Vic Fangio. Hackett was fired nearly as quickly as any coach in NFL history, becoming a league-wide joke for his tenure in Denver. Paton was seemingly stripped of much of his power following the 2022 season when the Walton-Penner Family Ownership Group brought in Payton to coach the team and have a significant voice behind the scenes.

“Sean and I have a great relationship, a really good working relationship,” Paton said about Payton. “We’re aligned on how we want to continue to build this and we’ve been through just about a full calendar year with each other and I think we’re ahead of the game… Sean and I have worked really well together, great collaboration between coaches and scouts, and the rest of the building. We will make some tweaks and we’re gonna have a really good offseason.”

This year was the Broncos best under Paton, going 8-9, with the team at 20-31 in total over the three years they have been run by Paton.

“It’s been a year now and I thought it worked really well, especially the partnership between Sean and and George.” Broncos owner Greg Penner said. “That relationship between head coach and GM is critical. I was impressed with the way that they handled things going from free agency to the draft. It was great to see a number of young players that George and his staff had drafted previously step up and play key roles. So we thought there was improvement this year and I think George can help us build a winning roster here.”

With the offseason of Wilson, a possibly new quarterback and that No. 12 pick, Paton’s scouting eye could again be tested. His only first-round selection was of All-Pro corner Pat Surtian II, taken in 2021. No doubt PS2 was a hit but he was taken ahead of arguably more valuable players in quarterback Justin Fields and edge Micah Parsons. Paton’s first class in 2021 was pretty solid, hitting on starting running back Javonte Williams, stud guard Quinn Meinerz and defenders Baron Browning and Jonathon Cooper. It may be too early to tell on 2023’s class but the 2022 class is looking like nearly a total bust outside of Nik Bonitto.

Some teams do move on from GMs not after the season but after the NFL Draft. If that’s the case, or if he’s even staying, Paton will still handle significant portions of the offseason.

Paton, for now, is still tasked with a job he’s had for much of the 2020s, ending the NFL’s second-longest playoff drought.