The Denver Broncos have truly turned their entire franchise around, and it's mainly because of the smart decision-making from Sean Payton and George Paton. The Broncos swinging and missing on Nathaniel Hackett kind of forced them to make a big push to find a competent head coach.
So if you think about it, the Broncos being as dysfunctional as they were in 2022 definitely helped in their quest to land Sean Payton. Now finishing up two years on the job, Sean Payton and George Paton have worked together to make some flat-out marvelous decisions that have yielded great returns for the Denver Broncos.
Let's look at the three best decisions in the Denver Broncos' Sean Payton-George Paton era.
3 best decisions in the Denver Broncos' Sean Payton-George Paton era
Prioritizing the trenches on both sides of the ball
Some of the first moves that the Denver Broncos made when Sean Payton arrived was signing Ben Powers, Mike McGlinchey, and Zach Allen. They continued on with moves like drafting Jonah Elliss, trading for John Franklin-Myers, signing Malcolm Roach, and extending Jonathon Cooper.
They've also recently extended Garett Bolles and Quinn Meinerz, making it abundantly clear that they wanted to hammer-away at building the best possible team in the trenches. In today's NFL, this is still how games are won and lost, and the Broncos investing draft picks and money into these units has been one of their best decisions.
Cutting Russell Wilson
Statistically, Russell Wilson flirted with a 100 passer rating in 2023, and if you were just a box score-watcher, you may have thought that the veteran QB was playing very efficient football. But if you were a Denver Broncos' fan watching them in 2023, you saw just how poorly Russell Wilson played. Over the last few years with Wilson, he's turned into a one-dimensional QB, as he's really only been able to complete those moon-ball deep passes or a short checkdown to the running back.
Russell Wilson has never been a QB to play on time or consistently work the intermediate part of the field. And since he's getting older and declining, those issues have become magnified in a huge way. The Broncos decided to take on an NFL-record $85 million in dead cap by cutting Russell Wilson, and while the move was unpopular, it's clear just how much it was needed for the Broncos.
Potentially running it back with Russell Wilson would have been a huge mistake and would have set this team back another couple of years. Them making the aggressive move to release Russell Wilson was the right move.
Drafting Bo Nix
After cutting Russell Wilson, the Denver Broncos needed a QB, and their decision to draft Bo Nix was the right one. Various reports indicated that Bo Nix and Jayden Daniels were the top two QBs on their own board, and even though Nix was the sixth QB taken in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft, he's finished his rookie season as a borderline top-10 QB.
He threw for 29 touchdown passes and was responsible for 34 total touchdowns against 12 interceptions and zero fumbles. Nix has been wildly efficient for a rookie and has set the Broncos up for long-term success. The team now has a cost-controlled QB and will also have cap space to spend in the 2025 NFL Offseason. They have done this rebuild the right way and will be rewarded for it.