Pat Surtain contract shows that George Paton has more wins than you might think

Pat Surtain II was George Paton’s first draft pick after becoming Denver Broncos general manager in 2021.

“This is the safest player in the draft,” Paton said in the Broncos draft room that night in a video prepared by the Broncos documenting their draft preparation.

Surtain was also a player about whom Paton sought to hide his interest. In an environment still impacted by COVID-19, the Broncos didn’t interview Surtain leading up to the draft. Paton decided through film study and intel acquired via other means that he was “our guy from Day One.”

The choice has worked out quite well. Quarterback was a need at the time for the Broncos, but both first-round passers still on the board are now with other teams, having had their fifth-year options declined. Four of five R1 quarterbacks in that draft are now with other teams; each of those four has declined options.

“Well, you got a few corners there, Vic,” Paton said to then-coach Vic Fangio. The selection of Surtain followed free-agent signings of Kyle Fuller and Ronald Darby just a month-and-a-half earlier.

Fuller and Darby are long gone. Darby remains a starter — now with Jacksonville — but Fuller has been out of the league for over a year.

But Pat Surtain, the cornerstone remains. And he’ll be around for a while after agreeing to a contract giving him the largest per-year value of any corner in NFL history.

Paton’s initial massive decision has become a roaring success. He drafted a franchise cornerstone.

The “safest” pick? Perhaps. But it’s hard to quibble with the result, which yielded a club pillar at one of the core positions.

GETTING PAT SURTAIN AND QUINN MEINERZ DONE EARLY MARKS A MASSIVE CHANGE

After all, Broncos observers became accustomed to the pas de deux that would exist between team and player at contract time. Early extensions such as the ones given to linebacker Brandon Marshall and wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders in June 2016 and September 2016, respectively, were the outliers.

Instead, the Broncos would wait until the late season as a contract expired — such as with Derek Wolfe in January 2016 and Garett Bolles in December 2020 — or, if utilizing the franchise tag, even longer.

Justin Simmons played the entire 2020 campaign on the tag. Von Miller, Ryan Clady and the late Demaryius Thomas all saw their contract statuses linger through months under the tag.

It was a fascinating manner in which to do business that seemed to reflect a trepidation of agreeing to a deal early in case of injury. But it’s not as though the price tags would drop over time with the ever-expanding salary cap.

If you know you want the player, get the deal done ASAP before the price rises.

The Quinn Meinerz re-signing in July was the first manifestation of this new, sensible philosophy. Pat Surtain is the second.

GEORGE PATON HAS HIS STAMP ON THINGS

The Broncos are most definitely Sean Payton’s team, and in many ways, the upcoming season feels like the first of the Payton era, with last year as a crossover on the Venn diagram between the Broncos’ past and future.

But they’re George Paton’s team, too. Ten putative first-teamers — Surtain, Meinerz, Baron Browning, Jonathon Cooper, D.J. Jones, Ja’Quan McMillian, Alex Singleton, Courtland Sutton, Luke Wattenberg and Javonte Williams — along with a pair of key rotational players in Greg Dulcich and Nik Bonitto — were either acquired or re-signed by Paton before Payton assumed the reins in 2023.

And in the last several weeks, Paton has done something that no Broncos general manager had done in nearly a quarter-century: a draft class with two picks in the first three rounds with whom the Broncos agreed to extensions. It last happened with the 1997 class, as Mike Shanahan — then running all Broncos football operations — re-signed defensive lineman Trevor Pryce and guard Dan Neil.

To be certain, the Russell Wilson trade remains an anchor that the Broncos won’t fully shed for another year-and-a-half. And the roster-building process remains one in which the Broncos will play catch-up for a while longer after sacrificing two years of premium draft picks for a quarterback who underwhelmed and is now being paid to face the Broncos in Week 2.

But Paton’s body of work is more than just a single trade, defining as it was. He appears to have the proper temperament and long-range vision to complement the high-wattage Payton.

And Paton can take ownership of what the Broncos are in the wake of giving Surtain a new deal. Because he has as much of a role in defining what the Broncos are becoming as the coach himself.