As Denver Broncos general manager, George Paton had the final say on all personnel moves for his first two years with the club. Then Sean Payton arrived as a head coach, and reports indicated that one of his stipulations for taking the job was having the ‘final say’ prerogative.
Any time the issue of which shot-caller gets the last right of refusal, various Broncos brass have danced around the issue. And last week, perhaps for the first time since Payton was hired, Paton was asked directly who has the ultimate power on personnel decisions.
“That hasn’t come up, and it certainly does not come up with Sean,” Paton said last Tuesday during his end-of-season press conference.
Paton danced around the question, but his reply was an answer in and of itself. If Paton retained final say, he would have said it because after two years of having that prerogative, why wouldn’t he emphasize that nothing has changed if asked?
“It really hasn’t changed a whole lot,” Paton said. “My role is the same—collaboration with the head coach and come to decisions based on the collaboration.”
The GM had to enter the spin zone in order to ultimately duck the question because the answer is that things have changed. Payton holds the ultimate power when it comes to football operations. However, I do believe that there haven’t been any pissing contests over final say as the Payton/Paton partnership celebrates its one-year anniversary.
Payton is busy coaching the football team for most of the year. During the stretch of the offseason meant for big decisions and roster-building, the head coach strikes me as an inclusive type of leader who values the insight and involvement of the experts in the front office paid to eat, sleep, and breathe personnel year-round.
“He’s so collaborative,” Paton said of Payton. “We would not bring in a player that Sean and I didn’t agree upon. We wouldn’t bring in a player that two coaches probably [did not agree upon, or] a coach and a scout. We dissect it, and we get into it. We do deep dives. It has not really come up in my career very often, but it certainly hasn’t come up with Sean being here.”
There you have it. While the Broncos haven’t issued a definitive answer to the ‘final say’ question, the between-the-lines read on the situation heavily implies that, indeed, that’s Payton’s privilege.
The head coach and GM are facing a pivotal offseason. Even though Payton moved the needle in Year 1, improving the team’s win total by three games year-over-year in the standings, the Broncos still finished sub-.500 (8-9) and missed the playoffs for the eighth consecutive season.
The perception of Payton’s handling of the Russell Wilson benching, which was hamfisted at best, has perhaps put an early kybosh on the coach’s ‘honeymoon’ in Denver. Now the pressure is on and nobody is on scholarship, so to speak, in the Broncos front office.
First thing’s first, the Payton/Paton brain trust has to come to a decision on Wilson. All signs point to the Broncos releasing him and absorbing a brutal $39 million dead-money hit on the salary cap in 2024. If the decision is to keep Wilson, then it does slightly simplify the offseason attack, though it wouldn’t necessarily represent any kind of lasting resolution at quarterback, as something still seems to be off in the veteran QB’s play.
There’s also the inconvenient fact of the Broncos being overextended on the salary cap. Current projections have Denver $30 million above the cap, which could necessitate the front office taking an ax to the roster, cutting expensive vets to create cap room — if the exploration of restructures or extensions is unfruitful.
Perhaps the 2024 offseason features the first moment where Paton and Payton don’t share a brain on a given player. If that moment comes, whether the Broncos telegraph it to fans or not, we know who holds the power at Dove Valley.
The question is, does Payton also hold the keys to hiring and firing the general manager if his collaboration with Paton sours at some point? I’d guess yes, but not without CEO and co-owner Greg Penner’s rubber stamp.
