George Paton's worst draft pick in Broncos tenure isn't talked about enough

Denver Broncos General Manager George Paton has made some great draft selections, but there have been some poor moves by the team's GM. And his worst draft pick is simply not talked about enough. In Paton's first draft, the 2021 NFL Draft, he correctly picked Patrick Surtain II in the first round.

At first, many Broncos fans were upset by this selection, as Justin Fields and Mac Jones were still on the board, but years later, this was the right pick. The Broncos originally had the 40th overall pick in the second round of that same draft. What Paton did next was just downright awful. He traded up five spots to the 35th overall pick and took RB Javonte Williams.

Paton traded away picks 40 and 114 to the Falcons for picks 35 and 219. There were a ton of very good prospects on the clock at pick 40. Some players who ended up going after pick 40 includeCB Asante Samuel Jr, EDGE rusher Azeez Ojulari, OL Samuel Cosmi, ILB Jeremiah Owosu-Koramoah, TE Pat Freiermuth, and even center Creed Humphrey.

Not only did Paton make a huge mistake by trading up for a running back, but he also whiffed on a ton of other very good prospects and seemed to have no concept of positional value here. In today's NFL, teams are finding starting-caliber running backs in the third, fourth, and fifth rounds. It is simply not necessary to take a running back as high as Paton did back in 2021, and him trading up for one is just bad roster-building.

This remains Paton's worst draft pick by a mile, as Williams has never averaged more than 4.4 yards per carry in his NFL career. He's never had a 1,000-yard season, and did average less than four yards per rush in 2023. He's only rushed for 1,881 yards in three seasons and has clearly not lived up to his draft billing. The Broncos also seemed to prepare for life after Williams by taking RB Audric Estime in the fifth round of the 2024 NFL Draft.

Estime has a great player profile and projects to be a bell-cow RB at the NFL level. Denver being able to get him in the fifth round is pretty good value and a much better allocation of resources as well. George Paton taking Javonte Williams was a mistake, and sure, every GM makes mistakes here and there, but this one is worth talking about.