George Paton knows his task: Find Sean Payton a joker

INDIANAPOLIS — Just because George Paton, Sean Payton and the Denver Broncos aren’t looking for a quarterback doesn’t mean they won’t be scouring the Pro Day and individual-workout circuit with the same attention to detail that they displayed last year in their cross-country search for the answer to the team’s perennial quarterback woes.

It’s just that now the target will be elsewhere.

“I think you’ll see the same,” Paton explained Tuesday. “We’ll kind of target certain positions and certain players. It doesn’t have to be a Top-15 player. It could be a second-round player, but I think you’ll see the same.

“Especially if Sean hasn’t seen a player [and] wants to be more familiar with a player. He likes to go out and do some private workouts. So, we’ll do that as well.”

It was at one of those private sessions that the Broncos became sold on Bo Nix — and learned about one of his receivers, Troy Franklin, whose process as a rookie earned praise from Payton during his 31-minute question-and-answer session Tuesday.

And much of the Broncos’ search this year seems certain to revolve around the “joker,” a playmaking running back or tight end who operates as a receiver on the interior of the field — which is historically a matchup nightmare.

“I know we’re searching for the joker,” Paton said. “It’s kind of like the Loch Ness monster trying to find a god dang joker.

“But I’ve played Sean’s teams that had them — and they’re hell.”

The Payton offense functions differently with that sort of presence.

“So, the tight end or running back being able to be a target relative to the center of the field, I look different than a guard or an edge rusher, corner,” Payton said. “Like sometimes, a draft might only have maybe a candidate or two at one of those positions.”

Which brings the Broncos to another issue: Scarcity is an issue in locating the “joker.” As is the case with quality quarterbacks, demand exceeds supply.

“There’s just not many of those guys in the league, really. There aren’t,” Paton said. “And you can count them on, your hand, one hand, how many there are.”

But for the first time under Payton, the Broncos can truly think about addressing this void. In the previous two years, other “must-haves” took precedence.

 

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PATON AND THE BRONCOS HAD TO PRIORITIZE OTHER THINGS IN PREVIOUS YEARS

“Joker” simply had to wait.

In 2023, the top task was to rebuild the trenches. Paton and Payton had cap space, but lacked draft capital, not possessing a draft pick in the first two rounds until a draft-day trade up to select Marvin Mims Jr. So, they went on a bulk-intensive free-agent spending binge, signing Mike McGlinchey, Ben Powers and Zach Allen.

Thus, that offseason was spent exploring internal “joker” options such as Greg Dulcich and Albert Okweugbunam. Neither succeeded.

A year later, the priority was obvious: quarterback. With its first-round pick, Denver took advantage of the passer-rich draft and selected Bo Nix. But beyond Nix, the Broncos lacked cap space after absorbing the $85-million dead-money hit on Russell Wilson. They had to be intentional and targeted in their free-agent moves.

“We couldn’t miss last year,” Paton said. “We really had to be strategic, and it’s not easy.”

Paton had more hits than misses, but once again, “joker” had to wait, with internal options such as Jaleel McLaughlin and Blake Watson examined on the practice field. That didn’t materialize into consistent results.

The roster isn’t fortified at every spot, but it’s more complete than it has been since Super Bowl 50. And that frees Paton and Payton to pursue the “joker” from a field that might be narrow — but could still be more robust than most years, given the depth of running-back and tight-end prospects in the draft.

As was the case last year with quarterback, the Broncos’ needs appear to mesh well with draft depth.

“So, certainly you hit a couple of positions that would fit in the ‘must’ realm,” Payton said when running back and tight end were brought up Tuesday.

“And yet, I would say not at all costs. It’s got to be something that makes sense when we’re either signing ’em in free agency or drafting ’em. But it is a priority.”

And after the success of finding a quarterback last year, confidence is high that the afore-mentioned rarity of “joker”-type players, the Broncos will be able to find one from the draft.

“We’ll find one certainly at some point,” Paton said.

Of course, Payton had a handful of “jokers” in Reggie Bush, Alvin Kamara, Darren Sproles, Jimmy Graham and Jeremy Shockey with the New Orleans Saints. They exist. And perhaps no one knows better about what he seeks in this regard than Denver’s head coach.

Further, Payton’s confidence in the Broncos’ methodology resulted in finding a promising quarterback whose rookie season was a success by every reasonable measure.

A “joker” is “unique,” as Paton said. But there is ample reason to believe that he and Payton can find one — and that they will be willing to do whatever it takes to bring such a weapon to the Broncos.