Report: 'Signs Point' to Major Move Incoming with Broncos GM

The Denver Broncos are likely to explore a contract extension with general manager George Paton this coming offseason, ESPN's Jeremy Fowler recently reported.

Paton's contract is set to expire following the 2026 season, but "signs point" to the veteran executive inking a new long-term deal to remain in Denver's top front office post.

"GM George Paton is finishing the fifth year of a six-year deal. He doesn't have an extension yet. Signs point to Paton staying in Denver," Fowler reported on Jan. 7. "The Broncos have 24 regular-season wins in the past two years with Paton and head coach Sean Payton together. The drafts have been successful. Perhaps Denver works out an extension this offseason. But if he became available for some reason, he'd be a hot GM candidate."

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Hired in 2021 to succeed John Elway, the Broncos have accumulated a 44-41 record under Paton's stewardship, though the team won a combined 24 regular-season games over the last two seasons — due largely to the head coach (Sean Payton) and quarterback (Bo Nix) with whom he's been sympatico.

With that troika in place, Denver last season posted its first winning record since 2016 and this year secured its first AFC West title and No. 1 seed for the first time since 2015.

Paton often gets criticized for the hiring of former coach Nathaniel Hackett and ill-fated trade for ex-quarterback Russell Wilson, but he's atoned for those errors with excellent free-agent additions and fruit-bearing draft classes — including his inaugural class that produced Defensive Player of the Year Patrick Surtain II, All-Pro guard Quinn Meinerz, and dependable starting pass-rusher Jonathon Cooper.

As such, expect the Broncos and Paton to hammer out an agreement at the conclusion of their postseason, whenever that may be.

Paton-Payton Relationship Thriving

Paton appears to be on extremely thick ice with the Broncos, but that wasn't always the case — or at least it wasn't always perceived to be. When Payton was hired in 2023 and made the league's second-highest-paid head coach, many assumed he'd consolidate so much power within the organization that it'd essentially render Paton a lame duck.

His ouster was imminent. Until it wasn't. The Paton-Payton marriage has not only survived, but blossomed into one of the NFL's best working relationships. If that wasn't apparent by the results on the field, it was hammered home when Payton spoke to reporters last week.

“Our relationship has been great," he said. "I’ve never seen anyone still spell ‘Paton’ the way he does. (Laughs) Honestly, find me. It’s ‘-ey’ or ‘-ay’, it’s not ‘Paton’. We have a lot in common. I was lucky for all those years to have a relationship like that with [Saints General Manager] Mickey Loomis, and I consider the relationship that I have with George. I’d heard so many good things about him prior to meeting him and then when I met him that day we interviewed, I found him to be just like what everyone had described. I can’t speak for him, but I really enjoy working with him. We both are passionate about the same things. I think he likes that I love scouting, and I like that he comes from a coach’s family. He was at UCLA, I think, as a walk-on red shirt, the first game I was ever was a graduate assistant at San Diego State. They whooped our tails. We come from a lot of similar backgrounds. I enjoy—and you have to because you spend so much time together—but it’s probably one of the more undervalued aspects. Find me the head coach and GM tied at the hip, and then you have a chance. I feel like he and I have an extremely close relationship, trust, but also we see things in a similar fashion. Again he mentioned this, I said it. There were so many people that we knew that knew both of us that had said, ‘This will be perfect,’ but we just hadn’t met.”