Elway promoted (kind of); George Paton hired as GM

[AKRNA]

6 hours ago, bMiller031 said:

No interview for Peters?

I hadn't paid much attention so far but today looked at the Bronco's list of potential candidates. Given his 7 year history with the Bronco's and continued advancement and success you'd think he'd be a prime candidate

[jsthomp2007]

3 hours ago, AKRNA said:

I hadn't paid much attention so far but today looked at the Bronco's list of potential candidates. Given his 7 year history with the Bronco's and continued advancement and success you'd think he'd be a prime candidate

[broncos67]

6 hours ago, AKRNA said:

I hadn't paid much attention so far but today looked at the Bronco's list of potential candidates. Given his 7 year history with the Bronco's and continued advancement and success you'd think he'd be a prime candidate

The only issue I see is that he may not want the job. He's a hot candidate, but we're a hot mess. He very well could have decided to steer clear of a franchise with ownership up in the air, a weird power structure, and a QB you may not want, but may not be able to move on from.

[AnAngryAmerican]

9 hours ago, AKRNA said:

I hadn't paid much attention so far but today looked at the Bronco's list of potential candidates. Given his 7 year history with the Bronco's and continued advancement and success you'd think he'd be a prime candidate

I was certain that Peters would be interviewed, and I wasn’t alone, but right now we have 5 candidates - Chicago’s Champ Kelly, Minnesota’s George Paton, New Orleans’ Terry Fontenot, New England’s Dave Ziegler and the Broncos’ own college scouting director Brian Stark - according to Klis. In this story he says they’ll do/have done Zoom interviews and then bring 1 or 2 finalists in for an in-person interview before making a decision Monday or Tuesday. 

I have to say that is a pretty lackluster list. No one with former GM experience, like Rick Smith or Thomas Dimitrov, and no Peters. I’m not really excited about anyone on that list but, with what we know now, the only that would really upset me would be Ziegler as I don’t want anything to do with New England guys. 

Here’s the Klis story: https://www.9news.com/amp/article/sports/nfl/denver-broncos/mike-klis/fangio-will-ask-questions-of-potential-new-partner-during-broncos-gm-search/73-6f13367f-7fdc-4744-ab1b-13cf6e4fa0f9?__twitter_impression=true

[broncosfan_101]

I’m very much with @lomaxgrUK in that we have very little idea who’d be good or not. Lists of transactions aren’t gonna tell us much. I like the idea of grabbing a top guy from a very well-run front office like New Orleans, and I also like most of what’s happened in Minnesota the past 10 years (besides not finding The QB.) Based on that, which I realize is practically nothing, Fontenot or Paton would be my preferences. 
 

Sidebar, I still think Teddy would’ve been a good QB had he not gotten injured. His lower half doesn’t have the power it did when he entered the league, and his raw arm strength can’t make up for that. 

[Broncofan]

I'll accept that you can't predict what GM candidates will work out nearly so easily, given their work is 2-3 layers removed from direct visibility (whereas you can see a HC's game management, in-game adjustment, etc.). 

I'm just really bummed that Adam Peters didn't even interview.   It's not to say he's a lock to succeed - but it's an indictment of how far we've fallen in terms of organizational esteem by other GM candidates.   It drives home the point that we have to get our own house in order ownership-wise, and for this hire, we're going to have to go with an unheralded candidate, who hopefully is the right guy.   

None of the above prevents us from succeeding - but for a counter example, as bad as LAC ownership is, because of their roster, they're getting all the top HC candidates knocking at their door.    Again, it's not a death sentence or anything, but this should be a sobering wake up call to how far our org's desirability has fallen.   I still believe this team is set up for long-term success if we can find the QB, and get the next HC right - but obv this GM hire decides our short-term direction for at least the next 3 years, given that's pretty much the minimum term GM's get, unless you've got a mafia boss owner lol. 

Edited January 7, 2021 by Broncofan

[AnAngryAmerican]

14 minutes ago, Broncofan said:

I'll accept that you can't predict what GM candidates will work out nearly so easily, given their work is 2-3 layers removed from direct visibility (whereas you can see a HC's game management, in-game adjustment, etc.). 

I'm just really bummed that Adam Peters didn't even interview.   It's not to say he's a lock to succeed - but it's an indictment of how far we've fallen in terms of organizational esteem by other GM candidates.   It drives home the point that we have to get our own house in order ownership-wise, and for this hire, we're going to have to go with an unheralded candidate, who hopefully is the right guy.   

None of the above prevents us from succeeding - but for a counter example, as bad as LAC ownership is, because of their roster, they're getting all the top HC candidates knocking at their door.    Again, it's not a death sentence or anything, but this should be a sobering wake up call to how far our org's desirability has fallen.   I still believe this team is set up for long-term success if we can find the QB, and get the next HC right - but obv this GM hire decides our short-term direction for at least the next 3 years, given that's pretty much the minimum term GM's get, unless you've got a mafia boss owner lol. 

I’d love to know if we reached out to Peters and he said no or if we didn’t even bother. Either way, it’s an indictment on the organization and leads me to believe that we will either hire Kelly because of his ties to both Denver and Vic, or, as some on the radio have begun suggesting, we will simply promote Brian Stark, which would be a Rockies-esque failure. 

[paul-mac]

Fontenot and Paton are the pick of those candidates for me, though I could live with Kelly. 

[AnAngryAmerican]

4 minutes ago, paul-mac said:

Fontenot and Paton are the pick of those candidates for me, though I could live with Kelly. 

The concern with Kelly is he was on a staff that took Trubisky with Watson and Maholmes on the board. 

Now, I’m not going to sit here and say I was 100% sure that Watson and Maholmes to become what they have but I liked both a lot better that Trubisky. I’m also a Bears fan as my family is from Chicagoland. But I remember watching that draft at the bar and, after the trade up and pick of Trubisky, I texted my cousin a said it was a major mistake and if I was Old Lady McKaskey I would fire Pace immediately. 

[AKRNA]

1 hour ago, AnAngryAmerican said:

The concern with Kelly is he was on a staff that took Trubisky with Watson and Maholmes on the board. 

Now, I’m not going to sit here and say I was 100% sure that Watson and Maholmes to become what they have but I liked both a lot better that Trubisky. I’m also a Bears fan as my family is from Chicagoland. But I remember watching that draft at the bar and, after the trade up and pick of Trubisky, I texted my cousin a said it was a major mistake and if I was Old Lady McKaskey I would fire Pace immediately. 

Damn, thats a pretty dubious distinction.

[AnAngryAmerican]

Troy Renck posted his story on the search with brief bios on the 5 we’re interviewing, same as mentioned before. 
 

https://www.thedenverchannel.com/sports/broncos/broncos-set-up-gm-interviews-with-kelly-ziegler?fbclid=IwAR2nLXL5HHLRDSsIV-u-OWgLuFskaKjV7vDg_3WoWHuIR6LMSonre2KdrhQ

If I was going to rank my choices of the 5, and as many of us have said this is even more of a shot in the dark projecting success than with HC candidates, I would go: 

1. Champ Kelly - I like his experience under multiple regimes, Mike, Mac, Elway, Pace, he has ties here and thus gets Broncos culture. Good mid-career kind of hire. 

2. George Paton - 2 and 3, Paton and Fontenot are interchangeable. What Troy write about Paton wanting assurances of running the ship on his own can be both good and bad, he got a micro-managing, my-way-or-the-highway type but I appreciate that he would do things his way. 

3. Terry Fontenot - again, interchangeable with Paton. He worked his way up and what they’ve done in NO speaks for itself but he’s also had a HOF QB and HC for much of his run down there. Hard to argue with the resume. 

4. Brian Stark - he’s a Broncos guy which is good but I do wonder if he has the chops to be a “real” GM; hard when you get promoted and your bosses are still the same guys, he’s likely be more deferential to Ellis/Elway/Vic. Plus it would be, as Troy writes, a harder sell to the fanbase and, thus potentially, to the new owner. 

5. Dave Ziegler - Nope. No New England guys. Period. I can’t believe we’re even interviewing someone with ties to the Pats.

Edited January 7, 2021 by AnAngryAmerican

[broncosfan_101]

2 hours ago, AnAngryAmerican said:

The concern with Kelly is he was on a staff that took Trubisky with Watson and Maholmes on the board. 

That was a Ryan Pace pick, 100%. A lot of reporting has come out on that. And again, Kelly was in pro scouting during the 2017 draft. He wouldn’t have been too involved there.

[BroncoBruin]

I’ve liked everything I’ve ever read about Champ Kelly. 

[bMiller031]

8 hours ago, Broncofan said:

I'm just really bummed that Adam Peters didn't even interview.   It's not to say he's a lock to succeed - but it's an indictment of how far we've fallen in terms of organizational esteem by other GM candidates.   It drives home the point that we have to get our own house in order ownership-wise, and for this hire, we're going to have to go with an unheralded candidate, who hopefully is the right guy.   

Sneaky selfish by Elway to step away a year before ownership turnover?  

Weirdly tough spot for a new GM to step into - not surprising Peters said no thanks tbh

[grizmo78]

I don’t think I’ve see Adam Peters accept and interview anywhere so hard to see that as indicative of where the franchise is as. What I’m really curious about is how multiple franchises can interview their top 5 candidates and have them be almost completely different lists... I think the Panthers are doing it right in interviewing a plethora of candidates and filtering from there.