ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — For General Manager George Paton, like Tom Petty, the waiting may be the hardest part.
After dealing the ninth- and 40th-overall picks in this year's draft as part of Denver's trade for Russell Wilson, the Broncos are slated to make their first selection with the final pick of the second round, and so Paton admitted Friday that over the course of the long wait, he and his staff will get "jumpy."
For months, more than a dozen front-office evaluators have worked toward the three-day draft that begins Thursday, and even though they won't have the top picks they previously expected, the team's philosophy will not change, as Paton and Assistant General Manager Darren Mougey said Friday.
"The process hasn't changed a bit," Paton said. "We're just focused a little later. We're not focused on the ninth [pick] — because [usually] you're always focused on that first pick. You want to hit on that first pick. But now we're just focused really on the second round and third. And those are really the ones you can kind of tell who may be there, the 10 players that could potentially be there, and we spend a lot of time in that area."
To prepare for that, Paton & Co. have recently spent time sorting through "clusters" of similarly rated prospects that could be available, collecting opinions from every member of the front office, and the group will begin conducting mock drafts perhaps as early as Monday to avoid any draft-day surprises that would leave them off balance.
And while getting ready for the No. 64 pick leaves a lot more uncertainty than gauging possibilities for the ninth-overall pick would, Paton said he still has confidence that their collection of picks will be able to give the team the kind of additional talent to improve the roster.
"I think there's going to be value in those rounds where we can upgrade our team, upgrade our depth, upgrade our speed, everything we need to do," Paton said. "We're fortunate that … in free agency we filled a lot of needs and throughout the offseason, so we don't need to reach for players. We're going to have flexibility. Again, I talk about flexibility all the time. But we can take the best player. And we can move up, we can move down. So I really think we're in a good spot heading into the draft."
However, come draft day, Paton said he will still entertain all options in front of him — whether that means trading up, trading down or standing pat. The only thing that may be too difficult to execute, he said, would be a trade into the first round.
"It's going to be tough to move up in the first," Paton said. "I wouldn't rule it out. I would say it's much more likely we move up in the second or we move back. It's going to take a lot of capital. We've gone through all the models to get up there in the first and so, you never rule it out, but I think it's more likely we move up in the second."
April 23, 2022 at 03:18AM
https://www.denverbroncos.com/news/it-s-hard-to-stand-pat-paton-broncos-entertaining-all-options-despite-late-draft
'It's hard to stand pat': Paton, Broncos entertaining all options despite late draft start - DenverBroncos.com
https://news.google.com/search?q=hard&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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