George Paton () (born May 5, 1970) is an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

executive who is the

general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

of the

Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football franchise based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The team is headquart ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL). Paton previously served as the assistant general manager and vice president of player personnel for the

Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. Founded in 1960 as an expansion ...

and served with the Vikings in various executive roles for 14 seasons. Paton began his NFL career as a scout for the

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The Bears have won nine NF ...

before serving as the director of pro personnel for the

Miami Dolphins The Miami Dolphins are a professional American football team based in the Miami metropolitan area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member team of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The team pla ...

from 2001 to 2006 and joining the Vikings in 2007. Paton played college football at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

and later professionally in Europe in the Austrian Football League and

Italian Football League Italian Football League (IFL) is the top level American football league in Italy established in 1980. History In the 1970's teams formed and played in Italy. In 1980 the first official American football league in Italy was established and crow ...

Early years

A native of La Cañada Flintridge, California, Paton played quarterback at

Loyola High School (Los Angeles) Loyola High School is a private, Roman Catholic, college-preparatory high school for boys in Los Angeles, California, United States. It was established in 1865 and is part of the Society of Jesus. It is the oldest continuously run educational inst ...

and

defensive back In gridiron football, defensive backs (DBs), also called the secondary, are the players on the defensive side of the ball who play farthest back from the line of scrimmage. They are distinguished from the other two sets of defensive players, the ...

from 1988 to 1991, being a part of a pair of Bruin bowl teams. While at UCLA, Paton earned a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

in history.

Europe

In 1992, Paton played in the

. In 1993, Paton played in the Austrian Football League with the

Vienna Vikings The Vienna Vikings is an American football club based in Vienna, Austria. Founded in 1983, the Vikings are known as one of Europe's most dominant clubs, having won the Eurobowl title five times (2004–2007 and 2013), as well being the runner ...

. The team reached the league semi-finals.

Executive career

Chicago Bears

In 1997, Paton began his executive career with the

in their scouting and personnel department, eventually rising up to the position of assistant director of pro personnel in 2000.

Miami Dolphins

In 2001, Paton was hired by the

as their director of pro personnel.

Minnesota Vikings

In 2007, Paton was hired as the director of player personnel for the

, reuniting with the Vikings vice president of player personnel,

Rick Spielman Richard Spielman (born December 2, 1962) is an American football executive who was most recently the general manager of the Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League (NFL) from 2012 to 2022. He was promoted to general manager in 2012 af ...

, who worked with Paton in Miami and Chicago. When Spielman was promoted to the Vikings general manager in 2012, Paton was promoted to be assistant general manager. In 2019, Paton was given an additional role as vice president of player personnel.

Denver Broncos

On January 12, 2021, Paton was named the

of the

Personal life

The son of a high school football coach,Paton is married to Barbara. They have two children, a daughter, Bella and a son, Beau.

References

External links

Denver Broncos bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Paton, George Denver Broncos executives National Football League general managers Minnesota Vikings executives Chicago Bears scouts Miami Dolphins executives UCLA Bruins football players Living people American expatriate players of American football American expatriate sportspeople in Italy American expatriate sportspeople in Austria American football defensive backs All Wikipedia articles written in American English All stub articles 1970 births