Denver Broncos: Grading all of George Paton’s trades as rookie GM

Denver Broncos: Grading all of George Paton’s trades as rookie GM

Trade #6

This is not the space for my official goodbye to Von Miller. I haven’t yet mustered up the strength to write that post.

This is all about evaluating the trade.

Still, you can’t evaluate the trade without evaluating the personal side of it. Von Miller has meant more to the Denver Broncos over the last decade than just about anybody. He was the spark that got the team from two wins in 2010 to eight wins in 2011. He was the best player on the best defense in NFL history.

In the years since Super Bowl 50, Miller has still been great, but the Broncos haven’t been. He didn’t play at all in 2020 and at the age of 32 in the final year of his deal, Paton had to make a near-impossible choice.

Trade the face of the franchise for amazing value or risk losing him in free agency for nothing at all.

We all know what happened.

The Broncos have some intriguing depth on the edge with Bradley Chubb potentially coming back from injured reserve after the bye week. Malik Reed looks like a potential long-term starter, and rookie Jonathon Cooper has vastly outplayed his 7th-round draft status.

The Broncos also have the aforementioned Stephen Weatherly, but that list didn’t include guys like undrafted rookie Andre Mintze and Aaron Patrick, another player the team likes quite a bit.

With all of that youth off the edge, trading Miller for two additional top-100 picks made sense on paper.

Whether Miller will return in 2022 remains to be seen. The Broncos got outstanding value for a guy who might play only 9-11 games for the Rams.

Trade grade: A