LONDON – George Paton didn’t say Thursday that his Denver Broncos will be sellers in the lead-up to Tuesday’s trade deadline in the NFL.
But he didn’t exactly push back against that idea, either.
“We’re going to do whatap best for the team,” the Broncos general manager told reporters here Thursday.
Paton oversees a football operation that is off to a disappointing 2-5 start and has one game remaining – Sunday at Wembley Stadium here against Jacksonville – before the trade deadline arrives. Denver doesn’t have a draft pick in either of the first two rounds of the 2023 draft and currently holds only five picks overall largely because Paton traded the franchise’s first two selections to Seattle in March as part of the deal for quarterback Russell Wilson.
Trading players like outside linebacker Bradley Chubb, wide receiver Jerry Jeudy and others could help restock the draft cupboard, but it won’t help the Broncos’ attempts to engineer a turnaround this fall.
Paton confirmed, not surprisingly, that he’s fielded calls about his players in recent weeks.
“I work the phones a lot and they call,” he said. “I talk to GMs all the time, so we have received calls. Obviously nothing imminent. We’re going to do whatever’s best for this football team.
“We do like our players. We’re not in the mode of getting rid of our really good players.”
He declined to elaborate specifically on Chubb’s status. The fourth-year player could be retained via the franchise tag or an extension after this year, but otherwise is set to become a free agent. He’s having his best year as a pro and has 5.5 sacks through seven games.
“I’ll keep that with Bradley and his agent,” Paton said. “You know how much we like Bradley. We want to keep all of our core players and he’s one of our core players.”
Chubb has declined to speak with reporters the past two days after practice.
Asked about the prospect of potentially losing players via trade and whether he talks with them when their names come up, head coach Nathaniel Hackett said, “They’re on our team, I love them, I want everybody here. They’ve done a good job and they’re growing. We’re growing together. George kind of handles that. …
“Right now those guys are with us and I’m very happy to have them with us.”
Wilson still on track. Quarterback Russell Wilson was a limited participant again in practice Thursday, but remains on track to return from a hamstring injury that kept him out of Denver’s last game.
“He had a good day of practice today, looks good and we’re just going to keep on monitoring it day to day,” Hackett said.
Does that mean he’s going to play?
“We’ll find out,” the coach said. “Itap day-to-day and we want to make sure (backups Brett Rypien and Josh Johnson) are ready at the same time.”
Compton returning slowly. Offensive lineman Tom Compton returned to practice this week and can be activated to the 53-man roster from the physically unable to perform list when he’s ready to play, but head coach Nathaniel Hackett said he’ll work back slowly after back surgery and a “severe” injury.
“He’s started with some individual stuff and we think he is going to be able to help us at the back end of the season, we just need to not rush it too fast,” Hackett said.
