The Russell Wilson era in Denver will officially come to an end on March 13, as the Denver Broncos are set to release the two-year starter before his five-year extension even kicks in. As we all know by now, the Broncos mortgaged a good deal of their future to bring in Wilson, and the Broncos are now set to move off from Wilson.
All of that being said, Wilson will go down overwhelmingly as the largest misstep in Broncos franchise history. The veteran quarterback will have ended up spending two underwhelming years as the Broncos quarterback, neither of which resulted in anything worthwhile for the Broncos. As the Broncos look to recover from the move that effectively decapitated the franchise, all heads turn to one man and one man only: general manager George Paton, the architect of the Wilson trade.
Paton's tenure in Denver has produced some nice finds and has mainly been effective in terms of drafting and undrafted free agent finding. However, Paton has made three major missteps: missing on the top end of the free agent market (see Randy Gregory and Mike McGlinchey), a head coaching hire, and finding the franchise's next long-term quarterback.
Paton has made missteps at the highest levels, and it is fair to place the recent struggles of the Broncos, highlighted by bad contracts and a worse head coach, and the Broncos are set to pay the price for years over it. The Broncos needed to replace Nathaniel Hackett urgently and needed to pay a first-round selection to do it. They spent two firsts, two seconds, and a few other important pieces to bring in Wilson.
Paton has done well in the draft, but the missteps have set the Broncos back many years already, and are set to move backwards again in 2024 and 2025. As the Broncos are set to take on an incredible dead cap number in both seasons and will likely need to move on from multiple key players to work around their dead cap. The future for the Broncos got even more unclear with the announcement of Russell's departure in a few weeks, and the blame should squarely fall on general manager George Paton, who might not be too far behind Wilson.