Sean Payton has certainly made his stamp on the Denver Broncos, and it didn't take all that long. The Broncos are now merely weeks away from moving on from Russell Wilson, a player they just traded two first-round picks, two second-round picks, and multiple players for about 21 months ago. Oh, and Wilson is barely a year removed from signing a $245 million contract with $161 million in guaranteed money.
Aside from moving on from Russell Wilson, Payton has helped the Denver Broncos become a much better football team. Technically, at the time of this post being written, the Broncos have a five percent chance of making the playoffs. They beat the Chiefs in 2023 for the first time since 2015. They beat the Bills on the road for the first time since 2007. They won six out of eight games after starting 1-5 and were one game out of taking the AFC West division lead.
The Broncos have been better in almost every possible way this season. They are better on special teams. Their training staff has kept this roster mostly healthy. And Payton is the man at the top pulling all of the strings. So where does that leave general manager George Paton? I think there's a possibility that Paton and Payton could continue working together, but there's a chance Paton could find himself fired for three specific moves.
1. Firing Vic Fangio/Hiring Nathaniel Hackett
I think the obvious first move you have to look at is the decision to fire Vic Fangio and hire Nathaniel Hackett. Although there are a variety of bits of information out there to back this up, I think George Paton went against his better judgment when he fired Fangio and hired Hackett, but it was all part of a master plan.
It seems pretty clear that the goal of hiring Hackett was to lure Aaron Rodgers to Denver, and it almost worked. Unfortunately, the "almost" part of that led us to one of the most embarrassing seasons in franchise history. The new ownership group was so mortified by the horror of what they saw on the field in 2022 that they fired Hackett before the end of his first season.
At the end of the 2021 season, Fangio at least had the Broncos in the playoff race until Teddy Bridgewater went down with a season-ending injury. Every aspect of the team was worse in 2022 under Hackett's watch. And ultimately, that decision came down to George Paton taking big risk -- a swing and a miss.
2. The Russell Wilson trade
In conjunction with the decision to hire Nathaniel Hackett, the decision to make a blockbuster deal for Russell Wilson could ultimately result in George Paton being fired as Denver Broncos GM.
It's not funny, but it's funny because at the time this trade was made, Broncos Country couldn't get to the team's online store fast enough to buy Wilson's jersey. They were about to build George Paton a statue outside of Empower Field after he'd been recognized for having the best NFL Draft class in the league in 2021 and then trading for a future Hall of Fame quarterback who had already won a Super Bowl.
I don't fault Paton for the decision to trade for Russell Wilson at all. I don't think everyone agreed with the decision to sign Russell Wilson to a massive $245 million contract extension before he'd played a single down with the team, however. Paton assumed that Wilson was going to work out no matter who was the head coach, and he couldn't have been more wrong. Although many of us were wrong about what could be with Russell Wilson, Paton is the one who put his job on the line with the move.
He traded away his primary NFL Draft capital for two years, and ended up trading multiple franchise cornerstone pieces (Von Miller, Bradley Chubb) to supplement those losses. It's hard to say the Broncos' roster is depleted at this point, but it could undoubtedly be a lot better if not for the Wilson trade.
I don't fault Paton for swinging big on this move, but it has failed miserably. Wilson is about to be cut before his contract even kicks in.
3. Signing EDGE Randy Gregory in free agency
Trading Von Miller and Bradley Chubb was justified for the returns they landed the Denver Broncos. Nobody thought the Broncos could get even close to a second-round pick for Miller, and they got more. Most people felt the Broncos couldn't get a 2nd-round pick for Bradley Chubb, and they got a 1st-round pick (and then some).
But the decision by George Paton to move on from both Von Miller and Bradley Chubb in order to make Randy Gregory his number one pass rusher is undoubtedly one of his worst.
The Dallas Cowboys had announced a five-year deal worth $70 million with Randy Gregory before the Broncos swooped in and signed him to the same deal with fewer ways for Gregory to lose money. The Broncos should have seen Gregory signing back with the Cowboys as a sign to stay away. He barely played at all in his first season for the Broncos due to injury, and in year two, he was horrendous.
It was reported the Broncos were cutting Gregory before it was announced he'd actually been traded to the San Francisco 49ers. The Broncos are footing the bill for Gregory to play for the 49ers and they're doing so willingly, because it was such a bad signing.
I think when you consider the fact that Paton's lone coaching hire, his big QB move, and his biggest free agent acquisition have all been failures, you have to at least consider that the Broncos might move on after this season and put someone else in the GM chair to work with Sean Payton.