Denver Broncos general manager George Paton has made it very clear that he loves draft picks, so much so that he’s said he prefers to go into each draft with 10 selections.
Any time a team completes a trade for a franchise quarterback it’s obviously a big deal, but Paton being willing to trade five picks and three players in exchange for Russell Wilson and a draft pick was a clear indication that Denver coveted the quarterback.
“If you know me, it’s tough to trade a lot of picks,” Paton said on March 16. “Two [round-]one picks, two second-round picks, and three really good players — but that’s the price you pay when you add a player and person of Russell’s stature. Once we knew that Russell could be available, he was our No. 1 target — he was our priority for the offseason.
“We were going to do anything it took to get ‘Russ.’ It’s just unique that you can trade a quarterback — a franchise quarterback — in his prime, and we just felt that we had to take that chance.”
Paton went on to praise Wilson’s deep ball, his decision making, his “it” factor and his ability to stay on the field.
“The durability he’s had throughout his career is unparalleled,” Paton said. “He started the first 165 games [of his career] which I think is sixth-most by a quarterback in NFL history. The thing that really sets Russell apart is that he’s a winner. No quarterback in their first 10 years in the league has won as many games as ‘Russ.’ Here we are bringing him to a team that is talented, that is hungry, that just needs to learn how to win and we feel like he is going to get us to where we need to go.”
Paton might love his draft picks, but an unproven rookie never trumps a franchise quarterback. Denver now has a franchise QB for the first time since Peyton Manning, and the Broncos still have eight picks to use in the draft, including a second- and a pair of third-round picks.
That’s a win-win for Paton, who gets his QB and his draft class.
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