The Broncos’ GM addressed several topics with 9NEWS, including his contract, not having first-round draft pick, Jaylen Waddle and team’s quiet free agency.

PHOENIX — Discuss for weeks, maybe even grumble about, what the Broncos did or didn’t do in free agency. Yes, at least they added what sounds like a nice receiver. The guys they brought back? Some to your befuddlement, some to satisfactory head nods.

Just remember in the grand scheme of the 2026 Broncos, all those guys have their roles to play, yes, but none would be considered paramount to the team’s success or failure. There is but one player critical to how far this team can go, as Broncos Country so depressingly realized last season.

And that’s quarterback Bo Nix.

He busted his right ankle at a most terrible time, but the heartening update is it appears he’s only going to miss one game. That was the AFC Championship Game and the Broncos lost it, at home, by a measly score of 10-7.

The Broncos were 15-3 with Nix last year, including a second-round playoff win against perennial playoff contending Buffalo. He misses one game and the Broncos were dreadful in losing to New England, which was dreadful two weeks later in losing to Seattle in the Super Bowl.

Bo plays, Broncos win. It’s that simple.

A new year is here, though, and the sooner the Broncos can let go of what should have been, the better. Nix is better. He will be fully recovered, full-go, by the start of the team’s offseason program the first week of May.

“He’s ahead of schedule,’’ Broncos general manager George Paton said in an interview with 9NEWS at the NFL annual meetings from a grassy courtyard at the Arizona Biltmore Resort. “He’s running, he’s jumping. Really proud of how he’s attacked rehab. He’s done a great job. He’ll be ready for OTAs.’’

You mean team reps and everything, even though he underwent surgery in late-January to repair a clean break in his ankle? The offseason program begins the first week of May; OTAs generally start the final week of May.

 “I believe so,’’ Paton said. “He’s doing great.”

Other topics Paton discussed with 9NEWS:


His contract extension

After the Broncos rebounded from the Nathaniel Hackett, Russell Wilson, 5-12 debacle of 2022 to the NFL’s Final Four just three years later, general sentiment is Broncos fans want Paton to remain their GM. Head coach Sean Payton said last month at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis he wants Paton back.

Paton with no ‘y’ is about to enter the final year of his six-year contract. Extension talks have not yet reached an accelerated point. Or even a starting point, really.

But Paton says there’s no rush, first things first. There are more important tasks on the immediate calendar. Like the draft that is a little more than three weeks away.

“We’ll get there,’’ Paton said of a possible contract extension. “We leave here Tuesday, draft meetings Wednesday. Then the draft and the offseason. Love it here. Love the ownership. Sean (Payton). We’ve got one of the best coaches in the league, best ownership. We have a really good team. So I’m happy to be here.”


Broncos’ draft without a first-round pick

After acquiring receiver Jaylen Waddle from the Miami Dolphins, the Broncos for the third time in five years won’t have a first-round selection. They don’t select until No. 62 overall in the second round. Paton, though, has proven he can adjust to such a deficit. He didn’t pick until No. 64 in the second round of the 2022 draft, yet nabbed an All Pro pass rusher, Nik Bonitto. The Broncos didn’t select until No. 63 in the second round of the 2023 draft, yet they wound up with All Pro returner Marvin Mims Jr., who’s also a decent receiver.

“It’s our wheelhouse,’’ Paton said.

The key to a draft without a first-round pick?

“You can just hone in on that second round,’’ Paton said. “If you have a first round, you’re honing in everywhere in the draft. We can really dig in who we think is going to be there. And we have two fourth rounders at the top of the fourth so we can hone in there.

“Third day’s a little harder but I think we’re at 62 and Bonitto was 64, Mims was 63. (RJ) Harvey may have been 60. So we’ve done a nice job there and we’ve got to keep it up.”


Jaylen Waddle

The Broncos couldn’t find a Waddle-like receiver in free agency so they wound up giving up a decent portion of their draft to acquire him through trade. Paton obviously felt it was worth it.

“He’s one of the more explosive players in the league,’’ said the Broncos’ GM. “He’s an elite route runner. He can stop, he can start, he can separate, he’s a matchup problem in man coverage. He’s really good in zone. And really good after the catch and he just adds to a really good group. We think it will open up our run game as well as our pass game.”


Running backs

About that running game. It was good when J.K. Dobbins was healthy through the first 10 games last season; not so when Dobbins went down with a Lisfranc injury that required surgery. Dobbins was going to make it back by the Super Bowl if the Broncos got that far, but his injury it can be argued was a second reason – Bo’s ankle being the first — why the team didn’t get that far.

Given Dobbins’ history – he’s previously had season-ending Achilles and ACL injuries – his latest setback was somewhat predictable. Yet, the Broncos brought him back instead of signing another running back on essentially a deal that is guaranteed for one year and $8 million. Paton indicated another running back will come through the draft.

“Obviously we wanted J.K. He was a priority,’’ Paton said. “We like our room. We have the draft coming up. Even after the draft we’ll see but we like the room. We’ll see how the draft goes.”


Quiet free agency

Not since NFL free agency kicked off with Reggie White jumping from Philadelphia to Green Bay in 1993 have the Broncos been so inert in signing available players from other teams. Denver finally signed special teamer Tycen Anderson to a one-year deal near the fourth-year minimum in a late wave of free agency.

The Broncos did re-sign 17 of their own free-agent players (exclusive rights, restricted and unrestricted). But the passive approach to “outside” free agency was an unusual tactic.

“For us it wasn’t,’’ Paton said. “We had a plan, we executed it. We signed a bunch of really good players. I know a lot of them were our own. I think (17). We won games with those guys. They fit the culture. Offense, defense and special teams.

“And really it’s an extension of what we did the last year-and-a-half. We extended 10 really good players. We’re talking (Pat) Surtain, (Quinn) Meinerz, Nik Bonitto, Zach Allen, (Courtland) Sutton, all those guys are All Pro, Pro Bowl type players so really it’s an extension of that.

“You can’t make that big splash every year especially if you’re extending that many guys. So that patience gave us the flexibility when something unique came around like the Waddle trade.”

Look at it this way: Good teams have good players. Might as well keep them and not let other teams get them. It’s when you have a bad team that you need to get players from the outside.

“You said it,’’ Paton said.


The Broncos in 2026

Given all this, why does Paton think the Broncos will be better in 2026?

“Why we’re going to be better is yet to be seen,’’ he said. “We feel really good about free agency and the start we’ve had in the offseason. We have the draft, that’s  big. And even after the draft, we’re always filling. There will be players out there. So we feel really good about the start of the offseason.”