George Paton's 'sleeping giant' comments are finally coming to life

Denver Broncos General Manager George Paton is in his fourth year with the team, and his previous comments may finally be coming to life. Here is one small quote from George Paton's introductory press conference when he was introduced as the team's GM, replacing long-time GM John Elway:

George Paton's comments are coming to life

He called the Denver Broncos a 'sleeping giant,' and for the first couple of years of his tenure, many of us had no idea what he was doing. He tried to awaken the sleeping giant with his Russell Wilson/Nathaniel Hackett pairing in 2022. And if we're being honest, we can't fault Paton for that move, as both moves were almost universally popular at the time.

It didn't work, but it did almost force the Broncos to come away with one of Jim Harbaugh or Sean Payton in 2023, and Payton ended up being the guy. The Broncos have since gone 16-14 in the regular season in the Sean Payton era, and since beginning the 2023 season 1-5, they've gone 15-9 across their last 24 regular season games.

Perhaps Paton's sleeping giant comments are beginning to come to life? And over this last year or so, the Broncos have found themselves a franchise QB in Bo Nix and have seen many of their young players, ones that George Paton drafted, develop into high-end players at their positions.

And most recently, we saw veteran LT Garett Bolles sign a four-year contract extension with a team:

There only may be a few teams in the NFL at the moment that have a better long-term outlook than the Denver Broncos, and much of that does to the expertise of George Paton, who was able to draft guys like Patrick Surtain II, Quinn Meinerz, Nik Bonitto, and Jonathon Cooper.

He also surely had a hand in guys like Brandon Jones, Zach Allen, and Bo Nix becoming Broncos players.

For all of the criticism that came his way, and I am 100% guilty of being harsh on Paton, his sleeping giant comments seemed to be right on the nose, as the Broncos have totally changed the course of their franchise over the last year.

The team will now seek a 9-5 record, which would put them four games over .500. A win in Week 15 over the Indianapolis Colts would give them some insanely high playoff odds, so this is, as many have said, the biggest game for the Broncos since their Super Bowl 50 victory, and the biggest home game since their 2015 AFC Championship Game victory over the New England Patriots.