The Denver Broncos have had a successful run with GM George Payton and Sean Payton, and now it will continue.
The Denver Broncos have been very successful for the last couple of years, and a lot of that is due to their Payton & Paton combination—i.e., coach Sean Payton and GM George Paton. The coach gets most of the credit, but the Broncos also acknowledged the importance of their GM with a five-year exertion that will keep George Paton in Denver through the 2030 season, according to Parker Gabriel and Luca Evans of the Denver Post, with the signing reported in multiple other outlets.
“We are pleased to announce a new five-year contract for George Paton that reflects our confidence in his leadership, vision and the overall direction of our team,” CEO and owner Greg Penner said in a statement announcing the deal. “As our general manager, George has demonstrated a strong commitment toward building a winning roster while forming a collaborative and supportive partnership with Sean Payton.
“I’ve enjoyed working with George over the last four seasons and appreciate the alignment we share in positioning the Broncos for sustained success.”
Paton is a football survival whose ability to last with the Broncos is truly remarkable. He became the Broncos GM back in 2021 on a six-year deal, which means Paton survived the disastrous trade for quarterback Russell Wilson that led to Payton being hired.
Penner understands how important it is to have a GM who can do the contract dirty work while being willing to forego most of the credit to the coach, and this extension has been rumored for some time.
The deal was “hammered out” over the course of the last couple of weeks after the draft concluded, with both the coach and GM wanting to get through that process began in earnest. Paton was briefly connected to an opening with the Minnesota Vikings given his past ties to that organization, but he stayed steady in refusing to lend credence to them.
His decision makes sense. Paton knows his head coach has as much football acumen as anyone in the NFL, and he also tacitly acknowledged some of the decisions he made before Sean Payton arrived.
“You grow,” Paton told The Post at the NFL combine in February, for a previous story diving into his tenure in Denver. “You grow from the experiences, some of the decisions, maybe, you made. You grow from some of the good decisions, bad decisions. And I think that helps you go through the tough times.
“I mean, I never flinched. I never was – always figured we would turn it around. And we did. And I’m not surprised. And it’s not about me.”
What it is about is alignment. The coach and GM are now in lockstep with regard to the kinds of players they want, and it didn’t take them all that long to get there.
“They’re complementary with each other in terms of their personalities,” a source with knowledge of the Broncos’ building previously told The Post. “Like, you have the (expletive) tornado – which is Sean – and then you have George, which is just this, like, calm. It’s like the yin and the yang, almost.”