Broncos general manager George Paton is in the final year of his six-year contract, and although the team wants to keep him around, the current lack of extension will lead to his name being connected with other potential openings.
And when the Minnesota Vikings fired general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah last Friday, the rumor mill started to swirl with rumblings connecting Paton to the vacancy existing at his former employer.
A report in The Athletic suggests this, noting that Paton’s name is “circulating in league sources” in connection with the Vikings’ vacancy.
Vikings owner and team president Mark Wilf said Friday that the team will not begin its search for a new general manager until after the draft. Currently, longtime Vikings personnel executive Rob Brzezinski is serving as the team’s de facto general manager.
Paton hopped aboard the Broncos in 2021 as John Elway’s successor and assumed the reins of the Broncos’ football operations, but after two seasons under three coaches — Vic Fangio, Nathaniel Hackett and interim coach Jerry Rosburg — ceded full control after Sean Payton came aboard as head coach, in favor of a more collaborative approach under controlling owner and CEO Greg Penner.
The two appear to work well. Their balance manifests in myriad ways, including on draft day, when Paton’s “more darts” approach to drafting and Payton’s aggressive trade-up philosophy demonstrated in New Orleans results in a balanced approach over the last three drafts.
“The two of them, we’d love to have both of them here long term,” Penner said last Wednesday. “I think the partnership they’ve created and how they work together, it’s very complementary. In terms of their contracts, those are things that we’ll always deal with on a personal basis in private and take that as it comes.”
Since joining the Broncos, Paton’s drafts have yielded four first- and second-team All-Pros: cornerback Pat Surtain II, right guard Quinn Meinerz, wide receiver Marvin Mims Jr., edge rusher Nik Bonitto. Surtain, Meinerz, Bonitto, center Luke Wattenberg and edge rusher Jonathon Cooper have all earned second contracts. The Broncos had as many second contracts from Paton’s first two drafts as they did from the previous eight drafts combined.
PATON SPENT 14 SEASONS WITH VIKINGS
Brzezinski is considered a candidate for the job, having just completed his 27th season with the Vikings. That experience could work against him, as Minnesota has yet to reach a Super Bowl in that span. The Vikings haven’t won a conference title in the last 49 seasons, for that matter, after appearing in four of the first 11 Super Bowls.
Still, in those 49 years, the Vikings have 24 playoff appearances and 35 seasons at .500 or better, including 18 of the 27 since Brzezinski came aboard in 1999. They are consistently competitive, and in Adofo-Mensah’s tenure finished above .500 in three of four seasons.
But the team’s drafting — a strength during the years Paton worked with the club — fell off in the last four years. And next week, the Vikings will watch as their former quarterback, Sam Darnold, leads the Seattle Seahawks into Super Bowl LX.
Paton worked 14 seasons for the Vikings from 2007-20, rising from director of player personnel to assistant general manager and vice president of player personnel, reaching that level in 2015. He served the No. 2 voice to then-general manager Rick Spielman.
The Vikings dismissed Spielman one year after Paton’s departure, replacing him with Adofo-Mensah. At the same time, the Vikings hired Kevin O’Connell as head coach to succeed Mike Zimmer. O’Connell also interviewed for the Broncos’ head-coaching vacancy in that cycle; that was when Paton hired Hackett.
Minnesota would likely have to offer Paton complete control of football operations — something more than he has with the current arrangement in Denver. But even that may not be enough; Paton has repeatedly spoken of the working relationship he has with Payton, and the success in the last two years of the rebuilding project speaks for itself.
