The Broncos have drawn a rather difficult assignment for a No. 1 seed in a divisional round, entering their playoff opener as underdogs to the No. 6-seeded Bills. Regardless of that game’s result, however, the team has completed a remarkable turnaround considering the past two years have seen a record-setting dead money bill (from the Russell Wilson release) appear on its cap sheets.
Denver has recovered from both the Wilson trade and extension and the regrettable 2022 Nathaniel Hackett hire to go 14-3 and book its first No. 1 seed since 2015. Sean Payton replaced Hackett effectively, and while the high-profile head coach is the Broncos’ top decision-maker now, GM George Paton remains a central part of the team’s operation. Paton was in the GM chair for the Hackett and Wilson decisions, making his status on this resurgent team impressive considering he had no past with Payton prior to engineering the 2023 trade for the HC’s rights.
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Installed as Broncos GM when John Elway kicked stepped down in January 2021, Paton is on a six-year contract. He will enter a lame-duck year in 2026, but ESPN.com’s Jeremy Fowler points to an extension being on the Broncos’ radar. Fowler indicates signs point to Paton remaining in Denver. It would take an extension for that to happen, but considering the success the Broncos have attained despite Wilson counting $32MM on their 2025 cap, it would surprise if the Payton-Paton tandem separated.
Rumblings about Payton bringing in someone he was more familiar with circulated in 2023, but nothing has come out about a potential split since. The Broncos secured a second straight playoff berth this season, going 14-3, and Paton’s extensions and draft picks have been a key part of this equation. Paton’s first draft (2021) brought Patrick Surtain, Quinn Meinerz and Jonathon Cooper to Denver; all have since been extended. The GM’s second draft lacked a first-round pick (thanks to the disastrous Wilson trade), but Nik Bonitto arrived in Round 2. Denver’s most notable draft choice during this period, Bo Nix, is tied more to Payton. But Paton engineered the route to land the Oregon prospect at No. 12, closing out a six-QB first round.
The Broncos extended Surtain, Meinerz and Cooper in 2024 and paid Bonitto, Zach Allen and Courtland Sutton this offseason. Sutton earned his second Pro Bowl nod this season, while Allen and Meinerz were first-team All-Pros. The Broncos have most of these players on team-friendly extensions, with Paton finalizing extensions for Surtain before his Defensive Player of the Year season and Meinerz before his 2024 All-Pro cameo.
Were the Broncos and Paton to split, Fowler adds the veteran exec — previously the Vikings’ assistant GM — would become a coveted GM candidate. Paton, who had withdrawn his name from the Browns’ GM search in 2020, was given time to turn things around in Denver. Now that he has, he has done well to restore his reputation with the Broncos and around the league.