George Paton started his football career as a scouting intern with the Chicago Bears in 1997 and by 2000 had worked his way up to assistant director of pro personnel. He then became the Miami Dolphins’ director of pro personnel in 2001, and he held the role until 2006 before moving the Minnesota Vikings.
In his final two years with the Dolphins, Paton overlapped with then-head coach Nick Saban, who had a brief tenure in the NFL before returning to college football.
Paton now serves as the Denver Broncos’ general manager and he’s entering his first draft with new head coach Sean Payton. During his pre-draft conference last week, Paton said Payton reminds him of Saban.
“My first two drafts here, I thought the process was really good,” Paton said on April 20. “With the addition of Sean, we’ve enhanced it and we’ve taken the next step. Sean sits in all of our meetings. He sounds like a scout, and he’s been around a lot of really good people throughout his career. He reminds me of Coach Saban just sitting in meetings.
“The two years I was with Coach Saban, they have a similar vision of how they want to build the football team. They have a clear vision on how they want to build the team. I’m aligned with Sean on that. You can see throughout free agency with some of the players that we signed and some of their make-up. You’ll see that moving forward.”
Since returning to college football, Saban has won six national championships with Alabama. Payton won a Super Bowl with the New Orleans Saints before arriving in Denver.
The NCAA and NFL are obviously very different games, and while Saban’s 15-17 record as a pro was underwhelming, he is an accomplished football coach with an impressive resume. Fans in Denver will hope Saban’s positive attributes that Paton mentioned will be reflected in Payton with the Broncos.
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