George Paton just finished his second offseason as general manager for the Denver Broncos. In his first season as GM, Paton had a nearly perfect draft, drafting players who all had an appearance on the team's final roster. In the short time that Paton has been calling the shots in Denver, he's made it clear that he's one of the best at what he does. Two years in, Paton established a roster filled with weapons that will help the team succeed in 2022.
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Broncos Best Offseason Moves
Trading for quarterback Russell Wilson
The move to acquire superstar quarterback Russell Wilson is the biggest and most significant move for the Broncos this season. Depending on how Wilson's career goes in Denver, it could easily go down as the most significant trade in Broncos history.
Since the retirement of Peyton Manning, the Broncos have been tirelessly riding a carousel of quarterbacks. After riding the high of success during the Manning era, the era of sub-par QB play was not going over well for Broncos fans. Fans were itching to see the team get back to its winning ways. Paton decided to stop the miserable carousel ride early in the offseason by putting together a massive trade package to acquire Wilson.
With the roster Paton built, the Broncos haven't really been in rebuild mode. Instead, it's been more of a “finding the missing puzzle pieces” situation. The Seattle Seahawks, however, are in full rebuild mode. Instead of building around Wilson, they chose to ship him off to a new team. The Seahawks get a young quarterback who needs a fresh start in Drew Lock, and the Broncos get a proven winning quarterback to effectively get the ball to their large amount of offensive weapons. The blockbuster trade works for both scenarios the two teams are in.
Signing defensive end Randy Gregory
The Broncos have been looking for a stalwart pass rusher after the departure of Von Miller. For the majority of the 2021 season, the Broncos relied on Bradley Chubb, Malik Reed, Kenny Young, Baron Browning, and more. With the Broncos being in a division with Patrick Mahomes and Justin Herbert, Paton knew the team needed more in the pass-rushing department. The team signed free agent defensive end Randy Gregory to a five-year, $70 million dollar contract.
Many analysts and fans were skeptical of the large contract given to Gregory given the fact that he's coming off a serious shoulder injury, as well as multiple suspensions in his career. Despite the shoulder injury, Gregory is expected to be ready to play by week one of the regular season.
When healthy, Gregory can be terrifying to opposing quarterbacks. Should he be able to stay on the field, Gregory will obviously instantly improve the Broncos' pass-rushing situation. Hopefully, he and the other Broncos pass-rushers can keep the talented AFC West QBs under wraps!
Hiring of head coach Nathaniel Hackett
The last offensive-minded head coach the Broncos had was Gary Kubiak back in 2016. Since then the team has hired defensive-minded head coaches Vance Joseph and Vic Fangio. While the Broncos' defense has looked consistently great for years, the offense has unfortunately struggled, thus leading to the eventual firing of both Joseph and Fangio. With the current NFL landscape seemingly being very centric around high-flying offenses, the Broncos decided to hire an offensive-minded head coach in Nathaniel Hackett.
Hackett is coming from the Green Bay Packers where he was the offensive coordinator for Aaron Rodgers. Hackett helped orchestrate the league's best scoring offense in 2020. Rodgers was also named NFL MVP in back-to-back seasons in 2020 and 2021.
Under Fangio, music was not allowed at Broncos' practices. However, under Hackett, he expressed that music is mandatory. The Hackett hiring brings new energy to the Broncos. Hackett is extremely personable, enthusiastic, and almost has a “golden retriever-like energy” about him. His new offense and overall energy should definitely help improve the Broncos.
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