Phil Lindsay thinks it’s past time that the Broncos fire George Paton

Monday put the final nail in the coffin for what will go down as one of the worst transactions in NFL history, the Denver Broncos trade for and subsequent extension of Russell Wilson.

Yet the man who made the decision to both trade for and hand out that contract, general manager George Paton, is still employed by the team. It seems he’ll be given the chance to pick the team’s next quarterback, either via the NFL Draft or free agency. Of course, his decision will be hampered by his own mistakes because the team is short on assets thanks to the Wilson and Sean Payton trades. And then there’s the $85 million cap hit for Wilson the team will have to maneuver around over the next two seasons.

In Paton’s three years running personnel for the Broncos, the team’s record is 20-31. The mistakes go beyond Wilson, with the GM’s draft picks being middle of the pack at best.

Put it all together and former Broncos running back and current host of 104.3 The Fan’s The Drive Phil Lindsay is saying it’s time to fire Paton.

“It is kind of personal when you’re in the football world, for those players and those other GMs who have been fired,” Lindsay said during Hour 2 of the show on Monday. “You’re wondering what is he doing right when everything George has done so far has not been really good yet he’s sitting here with a job. Yet he’s sitting here and telling these men that walk into the office that we’re going to cut or trade you. In reality, George should be walking into an office, and somebody should be saying ‘We’re going to fire you.’ Because you have not done anything for this organization to put us on top.” And we’re probably going to have to get rid of more players that we don’t want to get rid of to stay afloat and they still will be in the negative.”

The statement was part of a larger heated conversation between Lindsay and The Drive’s co-host Zach Bye where they both questioned Paton’s position. Bye said, “The harm that he has done to this franchise are not paper cuts but hatchet wounds.”

"The harm that he has done to this franchise" @byesline and @I_CU_boy are fed up with George Paton pic.twitter.com/ykgbbu7d7G

— Denver Sports (@DenverSportsCom) March 5, 2024

Lindsay is the last 1,000-yard rusher to play for the Broncos, becoming the first undrafted player entering the NFL to accomplish the feat in his first two seasons (2018 and 2019.) The success earned Lindsay a rookie-year Pro Bowl trip. That one trip to the All-Star Game is more than the rest of Denver’s offense combined since Paton took over as GM.

One of Paton’s first moves was letting Lindsay walk as an unrestricted free agent in the spring of 2021. The running back played just 17 more games in the NFL over the next two seasons for three teams.

Paton’s roster construction and choice of Nathaniel Hackett as head coach led to one of the worst offenses in team history in 2022, with a 30-plus-year-old Latavius Murray just picked up off the scrap heap leading the team in rushing. All the while Wilson threw to a downtrodden Courtland Sutton, in situations the scheme or offensive line even let him get the ball out and of course most of those throws were bad.

Most GMs wouldn’t have made it through that 2022 season, but here we are entering 2024, and Greg Penner’s stuck with the personnel man he inherited when he purchased the franchise: George Paton.