The Lead
It's new Broncos general manager George Paton's first full week on the job, and it's bound to be a busy one, as Ryan O’Halloran writes for The Denver Post.
To get perspective on that, O'Halloran spoke with former NFL GM Randy Mueller. Paton worked for Mueller during the early 2000s with the Dolphins.
"It will be crazy," Mueller told O'Halloran. "George is going to want to say, 'Hey, can you guys leave me alone so I can look at some film?' He's going to get pulled by everybody under the sun and that's going to be new for him. People think GM jobs are sitting around and picking players, but there's a lot more to it and he's going to find that out."
According to O'Halloran, his first duties will fall under a handful of categories: personnel, connecting with Head Coach Vic Fangio, preparing for the draft and hiring help.
The biggest thing of that bunch, though, is unquestionably getting a complete understanding of where the roster stands.
"The No. 1 thing is always the personnel," Vikings GM Rick Spielman said last week during a session with Denver media. "That's the lifeline of our organization, especially in the draft."
After he was hired, Paton called the Broncos "a sleeping giant," but has not gone into great detail about the roster just yet.
However, Peter King’s weekly Football Morning in America column did include a snippet of an interview he did with Paton in which he discussed his thoughts on quarterback Drew Lock.
"Drew's talented, and I think he can develop," Paton told King. "Obviously, you want to bring in competition to every position."
We'll likely hear more of Paton's thoughts on Lock and the rest of the roster soon, as the Broncos have not yet held his introductory press conference.
Below the Fold
Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer also spent some of his weekly column reflecting on the Paton hire by the Broncos, as he read the tea leaves a bit for what the move may mean for John Elway. "The Broncos' ability to land George Paton should tell you John Elway's being forthright as far as his plans to walk away," Breer wrote. "… Elway wanted to take a good swing for the fences, which signaled to me that he wasn't looking for someone to be his puppet."
