It's no secret that New York Giants general manager Joe Schoen's seat is red-hot. However, the Denver Broncos may have quietly provided him with a roadmap to avoid getting fired.
Denver reportedly signed their top decision-maker, George Paton, to a five-year contract extension. The club's notably coming off a 14-3 finish and its first trip to the AFC Championship Game in a decade — unlike the Giants. Yet, his new lease on life with the Broncos should give Schoen hope of buying more time in New York, per The Athletic's Dan Duggan.
Paton didn't hit the ground running in Denver, to say the least. He whiffed badly on a head-coaching hire and a massive quarterback move before reeling in a big fish to turn things around, as Duggan highlighted. Sound familiar, Giants fans?
"Paton got off to a brutal start — Nathaniel Hackett hire, Russell Wilson trade — but survived the hiring of a powerful head coach and has thrived while taking a backseat to Sean Payton in Denver's power structure," Duggan wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter).
Broncos signing GM George Paton to contract extension serves as ideal guide for Joe Schoen
The parallels between Schoen and Paton are crystal clear. Both have now brought in legendary, Super Bowl-winning sideline generals and first-round signal-callers on their second tries. It served as a successful strategy for the latter: he landed another deal as a result, which shows proof of concept for the former.
In Paton's first three seasons at the helm, the Broncos were below .500 (20-31) and didn't make the playoffs once. Meanwhile, New York posted a winning record en route to reaching the postseason in Schoen's inaugural campaign, though they went 18-32-1 from 2022 through 2024.
Handing the keys over to Sean Payton has quite literally saved Paton's job. Now, the two are an inseparable leadership tandem for the foreseeable future. Schoen's taking a similar route and putting all of his eggs in John Harbaugh's basket as an attempt to get off the chopping block.
Harbaugh has wasted no time shaping the Giants in his image. That may be in Schoen's best interest if recent news out of Denver is any indication.
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