Broncos Have a Precedent For Firing a GM After the Draft

When an NFL team fires its general manager, sometimes it happens following the draft. The Denver Broncos, back in 2012, parted ways with GM Brian Xanders following the NFL draft, and John Elway took over the title and duties. Xanders' dismissal came little more than a week following the draft.

Following the 2017 draft, the Kansas City Chiefs shocked the NFL world by firing GM John Dorsey, after delivering Patrick Mahomes on a silver platter. The New York Jets fired GM Mike Maccagnan following the 2019 draft. Maccagnan was fired just a couple of months after the Jets hired Adam Gase as head coach.

Why would a team fire its GM after the draft? Because the bulk of the work a GM does relative to the roster-building pursuit is done in the months and weeks leading up to the draft. Once that draft haul — a process that is an entire year in the making —is in the books, teams turn the page and start over on a new class, so if a GM's days are numbered, that's as convenient a time as there is to rip the band-aid off and start anew.

After a wildly disappointing 2022 campaign wherein Broncos GM George Paton's two big offseason maneuvers backfired — the hiring of head coach Nathaniel Hackett and the Russell Wilson trade — many in NFL media expected him to be fired.

Last August, amid the afterglow of purchasing the Broncos for a whopping $4.6 billion, majority owner Rob Walton gave the GM and head coach he inherited a vote of confidence (what else would he have said?). But he qualified it by saying, "They'll have to perform."

The Walton/Penner group fired Hackett before his first season was even in the books because he failed to perform. It's worth examining how the Walton/Penner group might feel about Paton's performance over that same span.

But Broncos ownership opted to maintain the front-office status quo at season's end, pending the team's sweeping head-coach hiring search. Then the Broncos hired Sean Payton as head coach, relinquishing a first-round draft pick (and more) to acquire his rights from the New Orleans Saints.

Payton has long been a head coach intimately involved in the draft/personnel decisions of his team, and considering that he was the most coveted candidate in this year's NFL hiring cycle, why wouldn't he demand personnel control?

The Broncos reportedly gave Payton that final say purview over the roster. Any personnel move the GM, Paton, wants to make, Payton, the head coach, has to sign off on it, according to reports.

If true, then Paton's wings have been seriously clipped. And perhaps that's what he deserves, considering the fruits of his big maneuvers last year and how he performed.

Usually, though, rather than diminish a GM's authority, a team will just move on. But the timing has to be right.

In the case of the Broncos, it would have really upset the apple cart to open the 2023 offseason with both a head coach and general manager search. It could have thrown the scouting department into disarray.

So perhaps the Broncos were wise to hold onto Paton, even with diminished authority. From there, Paton would have to prove himself to Payton (these names can get confusing), one would assume.

A few months into his partnership with Paton, the Broncos' new head coach had nothing but good things to say about the GM in the team's pre-draft press conference. Payton also compared Paton to his long-time partner in New Orleans — GM Mickey Loomis.

"Obviously, this is my first time working with George and it’s been fantastic," Payton said last Thursday. "Our relationship the last couple of months of just going through this—and not only this, but our players being back here for the offseason program. I look forward to coming to work. I was really fortunate in New Orleans to have the same individual in that position in Mickey Loomis. I feel like I've said this before. In some ways, there's some similarities, and yet, there's some differences. It's been good.”

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One thing worth considering is this: Payton has enough on his plate as the head coach of a team coming off a five-win season. It's one thing to have final personnel authority and another to assume the actual day-to-day duties required of a GM. Some NFL coaches have tried to balance both, to a certain degree, and it rarely works.

In other words, in this current set-up at Dove Valley, Payton gets to have his cake and eat it, too. Why would he want to create more work for himself?

He wouldn't, unless Payton didn't get along with Paton, or if those "differences" he referenced between Paton and Loomis are a sticking point. But reading between the lines, it doesn't feel like they are.

Payton was A-okay with George opening up the Broncos' pre-draft press conference with a minutes-long opening statement. That's how Paton has operated since becoming the GM in Denver.

If it was all about power and appearances to Payton, and he wasn't picking up what Paton was putting down, I doubt he'd acquiesce to even something as small, but symbolic nonetheless, such as that. It feels like Patyon's positive remarks on Paton are genuine.

But the proof will be in the pudding following the draft. Do not consider this a prediction, but if Payton and the Broncos were of a mind to move on from their GM, and allow the head coach to hand-pick his own guy, there is a historical precedent for it happening in the immediate aftermath of the draft.

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