George Paton says 'unique circumstance' led to Broncos trading away 1st-round pick
"We just felt like this was too unique to pass up," George Paton said of making a big trade for Jaylen Waddle.
Last month, the Denver Broncos made a blockbuster trade when they agreed to send multiple draft picks — including the 30th overall pick — to the Miami Dolphins in exchange for wide receiver Jaylen Waddle. While speaking at the NFL's annual league meeting last month, Broncos general manager George Paton was asked if the quality of this year's draft class was a factor in the team's decision to part with a first-round pick. “Well, you do look at that," Paton said.
"You look at the caliber of the free agent class. You look at the caliber of the draft class, ‘Who can we get at 30 within the draft class? ’ Then you factor in the cap and the finances, not just this year, but down the road.
The fact that he [Jaylen Waddle] is 27 years old. The fact that it was 30 — it wasn’t 16. We compared it to all the other trades the last 10 years with the first-round pick.
The value we felt was 26, and that’s the value we gave them . You look at all of that when you make a trade like this. No one loves picks more than me, so that’s hard.