Report: Broncos add VP of player personnel, hire away from Saints

The Denver Broncos are giving general manager George Paton some help, and tapping into the Saints to do it.

Multiple reports say New Orleans assistant college scouting director Cody Rager is joining the Broncos, specifically as VP of player personnel. The news was first reported by Nick Underhill of the “NOF Network” on Sunday and confirmed by several Denver reporters on Monday morning.

Hearing the Saints are losing assistant college scouting director Cody Rager to the Broncos.

Big loss for the scouting department.

— Nick Underhill (@nick_underhill) January 28, 2024

In his bio on the Saints website, it says the 2023 season was Rager’s ninth in New Orleans overall, and third as assistant college scouting director. He had previously been a national scout and area scout for the organization, clearly working his way up the ladder.

And apparently the Saints liked Rager, as longtime New Orleans media member Jeff Duncan points out. Duncan says that Rager was in line to one day be the team’s director of college scouting, should the man in front of him, former NFL GM Jeff Ireland, ever leave.

The Broncos decided to keep Paton this offseason, a decision that surprised many. He did hire Nathaniel Hackett, trade for Russell Wilson and extend Wilson, three monster moves that all didn’t work.

But head coach Sean Payton and owner / CEO Greg Penner felt comfortable with Paton and retained him for 2024. Now Payton goes back to his New Orleans roots, and adds another person to Paton’s front office.

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