Super Bowl LV spotlights pressure on Broncos GM Paton to perform

The enormity of what the new Denver general manager has been tasked with was on full display during Super Bowl LV this past weekend

BY JOHN DAVIS

Feb 12, 2021, 7:08 AM Updated: 7:06 pm

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I hope George Paton was paying close attention during Super Bowl weekend. While Super Bowl LV featured the Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the whole weekend said a lot about the Denver Broncos.

If the new Broncos general manager didn’t feel the pressure prior to the game, he should be feeling it now because the enormity of what Paton has been tasked with was on full display.

Super Bowl Sunday this season was bittersweet for Broncos fans, as Denver’s amazing Super Bowl 50 win turned five years old. And in the five years since Denver’s last world championship, they have accomplished nothing.

The quarterback situation has been a recurring nightmare. The Broncos, the organization known for winning Super Bowls with John Elway and Peyton Manning, have since become the team with that stupid quarterback carousel graphic play before every game.

On the AFC side, Denver watched division rival Kansas City play in its second straight Super Bowl. The Broncos haven’t defeated the Chiefs since Week 2 of the 2015 season.

Each season the Chiefs seem to get better and the Broncos fall further behind.

Yes, Kansas City was dominated and lost the Super Bowl — and maybe the unbeatable aura of the team has gone down a notch — but they’re still a great team. Given how the Chiefs stomped through the AFC in 2020, there is no reason to believe they won’t be back in the Super Bowl next season. At the very least, Kansas City probably won’t be challenged for the AFC West crown anytime soon.

On the NFC side, the Broncos witnessed Tom Brady start his 10th Super Bowl. The same Tom Brady that is 1-3 against the Broncos in the postseason. The same Tom Brady that the Broncos used to shove out of their way on the way to a Super Bowl.

While the rest of the NFL was scared of Brady, the Broncos had no problem beating him. Now, Denver isn’t even good enough to have a shot to step in the ring with Brady.

Five years after one of the greatest days in Broncos history, Denver had to watch with the knowledge that they are not close.

It wasn’t all bad; there was a bright spot for the Broncos, as Manning and former Denver safety John Lynch were elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. It was nice go down memory lane to a time when the Broncos mattered to the NFL.

Manning only played four seasons for the Broncos, but he had an unbelievable run that included record setting seasons, two Super Bowl appearances and, of course, one Lombardi Trophy. Seeing Manning highlights was a reminder that, at one time, the majority of teams and fans were jealous of us.

Everybody wanted to be the Broncos. That time now seems forever ago.

Denver fans spent decades cheering for one of the flagship organizations in the NFL only to watch the team deteriorate into a dysfunctional operation.

Since Manning’s time in Denver, the Broncos have floated somewhere between bad, embarrassing and irrelevant.

The Broncos have made a series of bad decisions at both the head coach and quarterback since winning Super Bowl 50. Each bad decision compounding onto the next.

This past Sunday, nobody — if they were being honest — could say they feel the Broncos were close to reaching the playoffs, let alone playing in the Super Bowl.

Yes, it’s been all bad. They’re not close. This is where the pressure comes in for Paton.

Paton comes via the Minnesota Vikings, a nice franchise that has managed to stay competitive in recent years. However, the Vikings don’t have the pedigree of the Broncos, and they don’t have the same standards of success we have in Denver.

Getting the Broncos back to respectability is not good enough. Paton’s job is to get the Broncos back to championships.

Of course, this will not happen overnight. It will take time. But Broncos Country needs a reason to believe the team is on the right track.

Most organizations watched this past Sunday hoping that their team will one day get to be like the Chiefs and Buccaneers while Broncos fans thought, “That used to be us.” Denver fans know what it’s like to regularly play in Super Bowls, and to win them.

The feeling of being the best is one in which Broncos Country is accustomed to feeling.

At no point in the last five seasons did the Broncos appear to have any sort of direction. Denver needs to crawl before they can walk, but this team needs a clear path and plan that will move the organization closer to what it used to be.

If Paton didn’t know the pressures that come with rebuilding the Broncos franchise, this past Sunday made it crystal clear.

Super Bowl weekend was hard for Broncos fans; they had to watch a hated rival lose to an all-time great quarterback that Denver used to beat frequently. Last weekend, Broncos Country celebrated an incredible past with no indication that the future is bright.

Some people think Paton needs to build the roster and not focus on the quarterback while others feel he must get his own QB rather than build the roster. Both are right. Paton needs to do both.

It really doesn’t matter what Paton does first, second or third. He needs to make the Broncos a winning organization again. He needs to make Denver champions or else he will have failed in Denver.