ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — George Paton was working on a trade that would send the Broncos’ biggest star to the Los Angeles Rams when he took a break Saturday to watch his son’s Pop Warner football game.
And who did he see there? Von Miller. The star he is attempting to trade.
“Beau, he’s 12 years old, he had a playoff game,’’ Paton said Tuesday at his first post-trade deadline press conference for the Broncos. “So I show up to the game and Von Miller is at the game. I’m like, Wow, OK. And he was there to see [his outside linebacker coach] John Pagano’s son play Pop Warner football. That’s the kind of guy he is. And as we were standing by Von watching the game, 100 kids came up to him."
“He signed every autograph," he said. "And he offered to take selfies with every kid. Adults were coming up to him. This guy is a special player, special person. We’re going to miss Von. But he’ll always be a Bronco."
> Video above: Mike Klis breaks down Von Miller trade
“Obviously, we feel good about the trade, but it wasn’t a great day here [Monday]," he said. "We all miss Von already. The accountants, the HR department, everyone was a little down.’’
It was a touching testimonial. The night after he hung out with Miller at his son’s Pop Warner game, Paton traded him to the Rams, along with $9 million of his salary, in exchange for a second-and third-round draft pick.
By all appearances, Paton is a respectful, polite man with a sentimental side. But you don’t get to be an NFL general manager without having ice-water veins and a steely heart when it comes down to doing business.
“We’re going to get some great capital from the Rams,’’ Paton said. “It allows us to build a foundation that we’ve already started to build. And build this thing the right way. Moving forward with this team, I believe in the players here. I believe in the coaches here. We’re 4-4. It hasn’t been perfect. We’ve had some ebbs, we’ve had some flows. We have a long way to go.’’
Paton said he started having serious trade talks regarding Miller with Rams general manager Les Snead on Friday. Talks got intense around the Pop Warner Game on Saturday. A trade agreement between the two GMs came Sunday night, after the Broncos held on to beat a bad Washington team, 17-10.
Paton told Miller the news on Monday morning. Broncos former GM and current consultant John Elway, head coach Vic Fangio and Broncos president and chief executive officer Joe Ellis also had private talks with Miller on Monday.
“Just with my conversation it was honest, it was open, it was emotional,’’ Paton said.
The Broncos started this season 3-0 – with Miller getting 4.0 sacks -- then lost four in a row – with Miller getting just a half sack -- before nearly blowing the game against skidding Washington on Sunday, with Miller and his injured ankle watching from the sidelines. Would Paton have traded Miller if the trading deadline – which was 2 p.m. Tuesday – had been a couple weeks earlier, as it used to be?
“It may have played a little bit of a factor,’’ Paton said. “I still believe in this team. We’re 4-4. People think we’re 2-6. We haven’t played great football and we’re 4-4. I’d like to think we’re going to play better and we’re going to get in the thick of it.”
Other topics Paton addressed during his nearly 21-minute press conference Tuesday:
*Fangio. The Broncos’ head coach entered his third season here with a 12-20 record, and fans were calling for his ouster as the losing streak reached defeat number two.
“I just want to say one of the reasons I took this job was because of Vic Fangio,’’ Paton said. “It hasn’t been easy this year with Vic. We’ve had a lot of adversity to overcome. The thing I like about Vic, he stayed the course and he has not flinched. And it’s kept everyone in this building even-keel. And Vic just works. I’m really proud of the way he’s gone through this.
“I’ve been around others that have folded, or the building’s up and down. But Vic is very steady. … We are 4-4. It feels like we’re 1-7. But we are 4-4 and we’re right in the thick of it.’’
*Offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur. He’s in his second year with the team and the Broncos are scoring just 19.6 points a game, after averaging 20.2 points last year.
“We need to be better on offense,’’ Paton said. “Pat knows that. We all know that. Our players know that. Pat’s had a lot of success in this league. I believe in Pat. But we do need to play better. We just don’t seem to have a lot of rhythm. We’re not good in critical downs or critical areas of the field. We need to run the ball better. There’s a lot of things that they’re working on.”
*On regular discussions with Fangio regarding the play of starting quarterback Teddy Bridgewater, and whether there have been talks about playing former starter Drew Lock.
“We feel like Teddy’s our quarterback,’’ Paton said. “Teddy’s our leader. If we can play better around Teddy, we’ll get good results.”
*On why it was better for Miller to move on to the 7-1 Rams rather than keep him here.
“We’re still trying to get to where they’re at. We’re a younger team. I think we’re going to get there. It may take a little more time. I just think they’re up and rolling. We may be by the end of the season. But if we had to trade him, that was the type of place we wanted to trade him.”
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