More than 20 years ago, when Rick Spielman was leaving the Chicago Bears to become the vice president of player personnel in Miami, he made a point of bringing George Paton with him. When Spielman began his tenure in Minnesota seven years later — one that has now spanned 15 seasons — he knew who he preferred as his right-hand man.
“When I came here to Minnesota, it took me a year, but I was not going to give up until I was able to get George Paton up here with me,” Spielman said Thursday on a Zoom call. “I’ve been in this business, I think, going on my 31st year, and I don’t believe I would be in the position I’m in without having George Paton by my side through everything that we’ve been through. He’s been my sounding board, my closest friend, and truly like a brother to me.”
How close are they? Spielman is the godfather of Paton’s son, Beau.
Spielman and Paton helped shape the Minnesota Vikings for over a decade. Now Paton is on to the next challenge, the general manager of the Denver Broncos, who locked him up this week on a six-year deal.
The closeness of Spielman and Paton’s relationship likely tied Paton to the Vikings longer than most assistant general managers. Paton spurned multiple opportunities to become a GM, including the Jets in 2019 and the Browns in 2020. He was fond of his home in Minnesota and the continuity the Vikings had in their front office, where many of the same faces coexisted for most of the 2010s and into the 2020s.
Paton had become a big fish among the league’s assistant GMs, and it was going to take a special angler to land him. The Broncos finally made the sales pitch that numerous other franchises couldn’t.
“George is a man of principle, a man of high character, a great family man,” Spielman said. “He wanted to make sure that it was going to be not only a great fit from a football perspective and a business perspective to have him have the best chance to have success, but also is it going to be the right fit for him and his family. He’s so talented, and he’s been mentioned numerous years for GM jobs, that he wasn’t looking just to jump to become a general manager. That goes back to his integrity, that goes back to his character. He was looking for a general manager job that he felt was the right opportunity for him, and Denver, I think, fit everything that he was looking for.”
In many ways, Paton’s impact was unknown to people outside the organization. There are no stats to reflect his effectiveness in scouting college or pro talent — only that he had an imprint on both sides. And it’s impossible to understand the full weight of Paton’s voice when the Vikings faced key personnel or salary cap decisions. Spielman was also hesitant to discuss Paton’s impact on the team’s drafting, though he did offer that Paton was an avid film-watcher and that he was instrumental in the team’s draft-day trade activity.
“When you know each other so well, you don’t even have to say anything,” Spielman said. “If you just look, he knows what I’m thinking, I already know what they’re thinking, and it’s that unique synergy that you have with people, that you don’t even have to say anything, and you just know. I think that’s what has made it so smooth over the years that we have worked together.”
Essentially, Paton was Spielman’s body double. Spielman is in a meeting? Paton can handle it. After 20-plus years together, the two agreed.
To say Paton is irreplaceable is truthful: The Vikings don’t immediately plan to find a new assistant GM, opting instead to remain “status quo,” in Spielman’s words. It’s unknown yet who Paton might bring with him from Minnesota to join his staff in Denver. Once that finalizes, the Vikings may go about restructuring, but they’ll likely lean on replacing Paton’s presence in aggregate.
“It’s not like I’m going to have someone brand new to be that sounding board,” Spielman said. “There’s a lot of people who are sounding boards in the office here. Rob [Brzezinski] will be a critical part of this going forward as well on his role and responsibilities. We have a lot of great people and a great culture on the personnel side, not only on how we respect each other’s roles and respect the work ethic and respect the opinions, but how we respect each other as human beings and how close we all are together as one group.”
Heading into a pivotal 2021 offseason, the Vikings will likely have a pair of key figures proceeding without their sounding boards. Offensive coordinator Gary Kubiak had become Mike Zimmer’s confidante, and he is leaning toward retirement. And Spielman will no longer have George Paton.
On the one hand, this could mean a fresh injection of ideas. On the other, it’ll mean new routines for a couple of creatures of habit.
