What's been the biggest mistake George Paton has made as Broncos' GM?

Denver Broncos General Manager George Paton has not been perfect. What has his biggest mistake been so far? The answer to this might be obvious, but it might not be at the same time. Paton had quite a few interviews in prior seasons before taking the job with the Broncos and was and still is widely respected around NFL.

In the NFL, you don't succeed without taking risk, plain and simple. Draft risk, free agency risk, and trade risk all need to be dove head first into in order to create a contending team.

Paton did this in his first two offseasons and indicated that the team would do so again this year.

His two most notable moves as GM of the Broncos consist of trading the entire western hemisphere for Russell Wilson and hiring Nathaniel Hackett. Both moves came last offseason and were widely praised.

It's clear that those have been the two biggest endeavors Paton has taken on as the GM, but which would stand as the worst?

To me, the most obvious answer here is the hiring of Nathaniel Hackett. It's objectively the worst move that George Paton has made as the GM. The hiring of Hackett also dives into how flawed the Broncos' interview process was last offseason.

They swooped in to hire Hackett when rumors swirled that he was heading to Jacksonville to interview with the Jaguars. The interviewed candidate list also was not as impressive as it could have been, and the success of a few first-year head coaches indicated further that Paton made the wrong move.

Now, because of that move, the 2022 season essentially became a total wash. The Broncos reset the clock on the Russell Wilson era by acquiring Sean Payton to be the next head coach.

Sean Payton is a great coach and I'm glad that he got hired, but because of Nathaniel Hackett's incompetence, the team felt compelled to spend another first and second-round draft pick to get the head coach right.

The Hackett move was a disaster and also ended up being very expensive. I don't believe that Russell Wilson dropped off of a cliff this quickly, so as of now, I am not ready to say that the trade and subsequent contract extension was a bad move.