The Denver Broncos have the ideal coach/GM pairing with Sean Payton and George Paton, and the coach knows it.
Denver Broncos coach Sean Payton will almost certainly be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame at some point in the near future, especially if he wins another Super Bowl in Denver.
But Payton also seems to be aware that he’s not the easiest guy to work with at times, and he lauded the extension the Broncos gave to GM George Paton by comparing him to another brilliant GM, Mickey Loomis, who paired up with Payton to win the Super Bowl with the New Orleans Saints back in 2010.
“I said this to [Paton] the other day, and look — in our league, it’s almost half the battle,” Payton said in a piece written by Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk. “I said to him, I said, ‘Man, I consider myself very fortunate to have been with one General Manager in New Orleans who I would call a very close friend and a great working partner,’ and then to find another person like George.”
But George Paton’s m.o. is very different from that of Loomis. Paton survived the disastrous trade for quarterback Russell Wilson, and he also made it past an awful hire that had Nathaniel Hackett completely overwhelmed by the Broncos coaching job back in 2022.
Sean Payton has a lot more control now than he did in New Orleans, especially early on. That’s a situation that could easily create problems given some of Payton’s combustible tendencies, but he loves working “in the trenches” with George Paton.
“I know that we both feel the same way. We love the grind together," Payton said. "He’s a tremendous asset and all, and he’s very good at what he does. I think we complement each other. I am super excited for him. I said that to you guys at the Combine, it was just a matter of time. We think alike in a lot of cases.”
The other big difference between Paton and Loomis is how they handle the salary cap. Loomis often seemed to view it as an annoyance and a distraction, and the Saints were often well over the cap. Paton is much more careful and seems more detail-oriented, as many of the extensions the Broncos did during the season last year were carefully designed to keep Denver at or under the cap and create roster flexibility in the process.
It’s an unusual pairing, and the Broncos are hoping it will produce a Super Bowl after Denver fell just short last season.