Here's how George Paton's moves at wide receiver set up the Broncos to get their long-term quarterback

George Paton isn’t going to reveal all of his cards yet.

So, in the wake of the back-to-back contract extensions given to wide receivers Tim Patrick and Courtland Sutton within a 72-hour period, he wasn’t going to focus on the potential implications of keeping two potential big-money wide receivers off of the free-agent market.

Specifically, the implications for the quarterback position, where starter Teddy Bridgewater is a pending free agent and backup Drew Lock hasn’t seen the field so far this season beyond a second-half stint against Baltimore after Bridgewater suffered a concussion.

“No, we’re just trying to get better as a football team and win games,” Paton replied when the quarterback position came up Monday. “These guys (Patrick and Sutton) help us win football games. You can’t have enough weapons and now we have two really good ones.

“We have three with (Jerry) Jeudy, and then some younger guys with (Kendall) Hinton, so we like where [the team stands] at that position.”

They will help the Broncos, no matter who ends up at quarterback. But a deep receiving corps does two things if the Broncos choose to go outside the organization for their long-term quarterback answer:

1. They create an attractive complement of targets which could compel an elite quarterback who is potentially available via trade — say, Russell Wilson or Aaron Rodgers – to have interest in the Broncos in the coming offseason.
2. They would give a young quarterback no excuses. A wide-receiver complement of Sutton, Patrick and Jeudy would provide plenty of experience and skill to a quarterback that Paton could select early in next year’s draft. He has already seen four of the possible Round 1 passers first-hand, viewing Mississippi’s Matt Corral, North Carolina’s Sam Howell, Pitt’s Kenny Pickett and Liberty’s Malik Willis in recent weeks.

Now, the other thing that would help a young, cost-controlled quarterback is a fortified offensive line. Thus, if that path becomes the Broncos’ plan, it would be no surprise to see them provide additional resources under the salary cap to the offensive line.

A quarterback like Rodgers or Wilson could probably flourish without the extra help up front; their experience, feel for the pass rush and skill at pre-snap diagnosis effectively allows them to be their own biggest help when it comes to protection.

Either of those would chew up much of the Broncos’ remaining cap space for 2022 — which was estimated by OvertheCap.com to be at $70.578 million prior to accounting for the Sutton and Patrick contracts.

If the Broncos choose to spread out the cap hits for both receivers evenly, they would consume $26.533 million of the space, which would leave just over $44 million for a quarterback, draft picks and a free-agent-and-re-signing shopping list that could include right tackle, outside linebacker, inside linebacker and the secondary. They could pick up another $5.706 million of cap space by moving on from Graham Glasgow.

So, the Broncos have space. But it can go quickly.

Still, there are no restrictions on what the Broncos can do. The Von Miller trade gave them extra second- and third-round picks that can be used as part of a trade — either up in the first round for a rookie quarterback, or as part of a deal for a high-level veteran.

“We have the resources to do whatever we want,” Paton said. “Moving forward we’re going to have a lot of cap room and we’re going to have cash. We have 11 draft picks, so we have a lot of flexibility and I always talk about flexibility, but we do. We do have a lot of flexibility moving forward and we locked up two of our primary free agents.”

The Broncos have flexibility, and multiple potential paths in front of them.

But there is no denying that quarterback remains at the top of their to-do list. And with their moves of the last three weeks, the Broncos have arranged the pieces on the chess board to have the maximum amount of options.

LONG-TERM PLANNING AT WIDE RECEIVER

Patrick has a three-year contract, and the Broncos could structure his deal to have the guaranteed money absorbed in the first two years. Sutton’s contract is one year longer, but with $25.9 million of the potential $60.8 million deal not guaranteed, the Broncos could create a similar structure that minimizes the dead-money hit if the Broncos choose to move on or restructure the deal heading into the 2025 season.

This is significant because of the timing on Jerry Jeudy’s contract scenario.

The Broncos have Jeudy under cost control through the expiration of his initial contract after the 2023 season; if they pick up the fifth-year option for 2024, the cost of that would depend on Jeudy’s level of accomplishment to that point. But if Jeudy makes even one Pro Bowl before his fifth year, his fifth-year option would cost the equivalent of the transition tender at wide receiver. By 2024, that figure could be above $17 million.

Jeudy’s price tag would go up just as Patrick would enter the third year of his deal. It could increase further as Sutton hits Year 4 of his contract. But depending on how the Broncos structure the per-year outlay to Patrick and Sutton, they could be well-positioned to absorb Jeudy’s pay bump as the contracts and commitments they made in recent days go off the books.