George Paton‘s status with the Broncos has taken some hits this week. Although the second-year GM is set to remain in his post, it appears the decisions to hire Nathaniel Hackett and trade for Russell Wilson have cost him.
New Broncos CEO Greg Penner is set to play a major role in the team’s next HC hire, Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com notes. With the Broncos still in the process of putting the team up for sale when they conducted the search that produced Hackett, Paton led the hiring process. Penner said he will rely on Paton during the team’s latest hiring effort, but with it being the new ownership’s first HC search, it should be expected the GM will not have final say.
Paton’s situation reminds somewhat of Joe Douglas‘ with the Jets, though the former has not been on the job as long. Douglas has rebuilt the Jets’ defense to the point the team is a playoff contender, and this year’s draft class has helped the team considerably. But the Zach Wilson investment has gone south fast. Paton passed on Justin Fields for burgeoning star cornerback Patrick Surtain II and landed high-end starters Javonte Williams and Quinn Meinerz in Rounds 2 and 3, while also adding outside linebacker Baron Browning on Day 2 of last year’s draft. Denver collected first- and fourth-round picks for Bradley Chubb at this year’s deadline, helping to fill the draft-capital void created by the Wilson trade. While several of Paton’s moves have worked out, the Wilson-Hackett partnership undercut them and has the former Vikings lieutenant on thinner ice.
It is not known if Paton or ownership pushed to have Wilson signed long-term before this season. Conversations ramped up once Penner arrived along with Rob Walton, and the team wanted to avoid waiting until 2023 to extend the QB. But the five-year, $245MM extension is off to a shockingly poor start. Penner announcing that the next HC will report to him and not Paton strips the latter’s power to the point Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk posits the next Broncos coach will have the chance to run the football operation. Paton, 52, has held that role since arriving last year.
The Broncos have experienced ups and downs with a coach running the show, going from Mike Shanahan in this role to the overmatched Josh McDaniels, who held de facto GM power upon being hired in 2009. Considering new ownership’s deep pockets and a potential offer to run football operations, the Broncos would present an intriguing opportunity for an experienced head coach. That is believed to be the direction Denver heads this time, after seeing first-time hires Vance Joseph, Vic Fangio and Hackett underwhelm.
“I’ve worked with a lot of great CEOs, and it starts with really strong leadership,” Penner said. “I think that’s going to be the most critical factor here in a head coach. Obviously the X’s and O’s are important, but we need a strong leader for this organization that’s focused on winning. That starts with culture, it’s instilling a sense of accountability, discipline, and we need an identity on offense. At the starting point, it’s got to be about culture and leadership, and those characteristics are what we’ve focused on the most.”
Frank Reich, Jim Harbaugh, Dan Quinn and Sean Payton are believed to be on the early radar. The Broncos could make a strong run at Payton, Fowler adds, though it is not certain the former Saints HC is interested. Harbaugh has a relationship with Broncos consultant John Elway, who ran the team’s football ops for 10 years, and minority owner Condoleezza Rice due to each’s Stanford ties. Rice worked with Harbaugh during his time with the Cardinal, per Florio, adding an interesting wrinkle to the upcoming search.
As for the team’s current setup, interim HC Jerry Rosburg said (via 9News’ Mike Klis, on Twitter) DC Ejiro Evero declined the chance to be the interim option out of loyalty to Hackett. Evero and Hackett have been friends since they were college teammates at UC-Davis. The league has also shifted away from promoting interim coaches, with Doug Marrone being the most recent such hire back in 2017. The Broncos still want to interview Evero, though the first-time DC does not profile as an experienced candidate.
Rosburg, 67, also said (via ESPN.com’s Jeff Legwold, on Twitter) it was his decision to fire special teams coordinator Dwayne Stukes and offensive line coach Butch Barry. Both were Hackett hires. Rosburg also confirmed it was Paton, not Hackett, who brought him out of retirement to be the team’s game management assistant. Hackett’s run of issues during the season’s first two weeks led to the hire. The sideline confrontation between Brett Rypien and Dalton Risner also contributed to the early Hackett dismissal, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com notes (video link), as it was a sign the first-year coach was losing the team. Penner said off-field matters led to the early firing. Randy Gregory, who threw a punch at Rams offensive lineman Oday Aboushi and faced a suspension, cited Hackett’s tenuous status as HC in his successful appeal to the league, Klis tweets.
Joe Douglas isn’t a similar situation to Paton. Both Wilson QBs have been disasters, but Douglas’s coaching hire looks very good, the team is on the fringes of playoff contention even with a smoking crater at QB, and Zach is owed so little money that they can simply move on from him. It’s a setback that he’s bad, but not one that makes it impossible to pivot. The Jets also didn’t have new ownership come in.
Very true. To me, the Hackett hiring was made purely to lure Rodgers. When that failed, plan B was Russ.
A lot of blame needs to fall on Russ here, in my opinion. He is playing inexcusably poor and become a joke in the media with how he’s carried himself. I struggle to blame Hackett too much for not seeing that coming. I don’t think many expected anything close to the level of cringe he has brought.
In both moves though, mistakes were made. Hackett’s hire should have been conditional on getting Rodgers. They overpaid for Russ in value and then prematurely extended him. Just not smart moves to begin with, as many called out at the time…
I generally agree with you, though the conditional thing wouldn’t have been possible. And Wilson deserves a lot of blame, but I think he’ll look at least a notch better with a more competent coach who doesn’t refuse to adapt to his QB’s skill set.
You’re saying couldn’t be conditional due to the timing of hiring HC’s and the League New Year starting? Technically yes. I just don’t believe in that situation hiring Rodgers’ friggin OC that they couldn’t get at least a verbal guarantee that he’d do everything he could to force a trade to DEN. He had all the leverage.
I mean you can’t hire a guy conditionally on landing a player who’s with another team. That’s not just tampering. It’s codifying your tampering.
Yeah I’m not saying the contract would actually be conditional. But signing Hackett really only made sense if they were sure they could get Rodgers, or at least that he was deadset on leaving GB *and* interested in DEN. In the end, the former didn’t even prove true.
Well, between Urban Meyer and Hackett, we’ve seen an extraordinary pair of F around and find out hires and results.
The further we get from the supposed Rodgers-wanting-out-of-GB, the less I believe it was really a serious consideration. Wasn’t it the previous off-season that Schlereth guaranteed he was on his way to Denver? Plus rumors of him going to TN because of some real estate deal, the always present SF/childhood team stuff, and so on. Point is, if he didn’t leave then, when it seemed there was no reconciliation between he and GB mngmnt, he probably wasn’t after they sort of kissed and made up. Thus, for any team to hire 1 of his buddies as HC or whatever in the hope of him then wanting a trade to said team was rather foolish. I think Rodgers has maybe rededicated himself to playing his whole career for GB..with only SF as a potential final year destination type thing.
Paton knew the Broncos had a very unsettled ownership situation when he took the job. I like to think he showed some courage walking into a potential minefield, although I can understand those who believe he was just foolish.
“Leadership”…that’s what Paton said earlier this year.
Nothing leads like winning. They can’t do either with Dangerwich, it doesn’t really matter who they hire. Whoever they do, like Mina Kimes said, they better look at it as a long haul hire because there’s large odds the Broncos are already staring at 2024.
Broncos need to focus on landing the best backup quarterback they can for cash/trade and stock up on their OL regardless of who’s behind center.
…and “leadership” isn’t going to just “fix” it.
I don’t imagine many Bronco fans are excited about Jay Cutler or Donald Stephenson making a comeback.
Russ lost the locker room before Hackett did. To hear that he has his own office and private parking spaces makes me cringe, and I doubt that was Hackett’s idea. If they don’t fix that and hire the right coach the Broncos can kiss being taken seriously in the next decade goodbye
If I’m Evero I’m doing whatever it takes to leave Denver after the season
Not sure why Paton is getting cut any slack – as he has hosed this team up for at least the next 3-4 years.
Because he hasn’t. His picks have been good, and his roster building mostly successful. It’s the Wilson, Gregory, and Hackett deals that are suspect. Paton also has demonstrated some ability to attempt to address bad situations. He recouped a first round pick for Chubb, and hired Jerry Rosburg on his own initiative to attempt to address the coaching inadequacies of the head coach’s staff choices (staff choices that, admittedly, Paton had an indirect hand in hiring).
I think that Paton went against his instincts in signing Wilson, but committed too early to the “veteran elite at all costs” plan. He likely saw the good returns and positive direction that the roster was showing last year and believed in it too strongly, and as such gambled on Wilson and Hackett. Who knows if the original Hackett-Rodgers idea would have worked. Chances are better, considering how Rodgers is similar to having another offensive coach in his own right, Wilson apparently is not, and apparently neither is Hackett.
Paton made a (near) fatal mistake in assuming that Wilson could work with Hackett in the same way that Rodgers did. Hopefully he has learned from that, and hopefully for Denver they can enjoy his drafting decisions while having an experienced coach manage the players currently on the roster.
Frank Reich might be a good fit for Denver. Walking into more QB problems might not be to his taste. Payton never managed to find a successor to Drew Brees in New Orleans so no guarantees he could find or build a franchise QB for the Broncos.
Payton has made it known he is looking to Coach in a Warm City in Warm Weather … me thinks San Diego, Tampa etc.
Harbaugh won’t be leaving Michigan for a good while.
A Young Offensive Master Mind from one of the Coaching Trees might be a good Hire (yet no HC experience)
I still believe the guy on Pittsburghs Staff who sued the League is a very good Coach.