3 mistakes George Paton has made during Broncos tenure

Mistakes made during George Paton’s tenure so far as GM

Putting too much emphasis on the “next man up” mentality

I get that George Paton is trying to establish a culture within the Broncos organization.  He talked about this a ton during the introductory moments of his tenure– he mentioned how he wanted to reward the players who helped establish a purpose inside the Broncos organization.

He lived up to his words by re-signing Justin Simmons, extending Shelby Harris, re-signing Josey Jewell, bringing back Kareem Jackson, and giving extensions to both Courtland Sutton and Tim Patrick.  He kept his word by rewarding these players who have put in a ton of effort to make themselves and the team better.

It’s clear that Paton seems to favor building a team organically; he’s made it very clear how much he values the draft, and by extension of that, he’s huge on the development and retention of players.

However, his over-reliance on this mentality has spilled over into player injuries.  When Tim Patrick when down this offseason, Denver hardly lifted a finger to try and replace his production on the roster.  Attempting to rely on young veterans and some rookie receivers to fill the void left by Patrick was the wrong move, in my opinion.

Outside of Courtland Sutton and perhaps Jerry Jeudy, there isn’t another reliable and established receiver on the roster.  I also remember when Bradley Chubb went down early last year.  If I’m not mistaken, the roster move he then made when Chubb went on IR was to sign Aaron Patrick, who was on the Jaguars practice squad at the time.

To me, some of these moves are simply not good enough, and I think he needs to show more urgency if and when more players suffer injuries.  There are still a plethora of quality free agents left at positions of need for the Denver Broncos, but I think George Paton puts too much emphasis on the culture he has already established.