With their trade of Von Miller to the Los Angeles Rams on Monday, the Denver Broncos shipped off the face of the franchise.
Thus, the question begging to be asked is what does the future of the franchise hold for the Broncos, who take a 4-4 record into a Sunday matchup versus the Dallas Cowboys for the first game of the post-Von era?
General manager George Paton let it be known Tuesday that no fire sale had been ignited and no rebuild is underway.
"We're not approaching a rebuild," Paton said, via team transcript. "We're just trying to do it the right way. Sometimes you have to make tough decisions. We want to build a foundation here. We have a lot of good players here. That's not fair to Justin Simmons; that's not fair to Teddy Bridgewater; that's not fair to some of our core guys to rebuild. I think we have enough players here. Now, do we need to continue to build the foundation to get where we need to go? Certainly. We will continue to do that, and that's what we've done with some of these trades."
On Monday, Denver shipped Miller, a multi-time Pro Bowler, Super Bowl 50 Most Valuable Player and one of the greatest Broncos of the them all, to the Rams in exchange for 2022 second- and third-round draft picks. With Miller in the last season of a lucrative six-year, $114 million deal, the harsh business reality was the 32-year-old who missed all of 2020 with an ankle injury wasn't likely heading back to Denver.
And so, Paton and the Broncos parted ways with the three-time All-Pro in one of the team's handful of trades in the last two weeks. Denver also acquired linebackers Kenny Young (also in a deal with the Rams) and Stephen Weatherly and sent rookie cornerback Kary Vincent Jr. to the Eagles.
Paton insisted there was no fire sale at hand, though, which was a notion he doused when addressing the team leaders.
"I met with the leadership group," Paton said. "I met with all our captains. I just told them [that] I believed in them. I believe in the players that have to replace [OLB] Von [Miller], and you saw that [Sunday]. This is not a fire sale. We believe in all these guys. We're 4-4 and everything's in front of us. We had a long conversation. I think they're all in; I know they're all in. We traded one player. He's a great player, but we believe in the guys behind him. We believe in this roster. We do need to play better. Everyone needs to know that. There is an urgency. We haven't played great. We need to play better, but the fact of the matter is [that] we're 4-4 and we're still in it. I believe in these guys, and I believe they can turn it around."
Nonetheless, the trade of Miller underscores that change is at hand and raises concern that head coach Vic Fangio, amid his third season leading the club, could be sitting upon a hot seat. Paton spoke rather glowingly of Fangio, but, in no surprise, offered no comments of job security.
"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 [is] he's stayed the course and he has not flinched. It's kept everyone in this building even keel. Vic just works. I'm really proud of the way he's gone through this. I've been around others that have folded, and the building is up and down, but Vic is very steady. Again, we've suffered a lot of different things and he's stayed the course. 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."
The season is by no means over and done with for Denver, which is currently the 11th seed in the AFC. But there is certainly an eye on the future, with Miller's departure bolstering the Broncos' draft capital.
"It gives us a lot of flexibility," Paton said. "We have 11 picks in this draft, so we love it. It gives us the flexibility to go get a player. It gives us flexibility to move up in the draft [or] move back. We really can do whatever we want. That's what you always want to do going into a draft. We like where we're at."
Per Paton, he and Rams general manager Les Snead began Miller trade talks on Friday that continued into Saturday, with the deal getting finalized on Sunday night. There were at least two other teams interested, but Paton did not believe they were a good fit for Miller.
"I didn't sleep Sunday night," Paton said. "This was not easy. This guy is an icon. He can still rush the passer. But it's a win-win, like I said. You have to make the best decision for your franchise moving forward, and we just felt this was at this time."
It was on Saturday that, by chance, Paton saw Miller at a Pop Warner football game. It was that chance meeting that provided Paton a portrait of who Miller is and why trading him was such a difficult move, no matter the positives he believes it will bestow the franchise.
"On a personal note, this past Saturday, my son had a playoff football game. Beau -- he's 12-years-old and he had a playoff game," Paton said. "I show up to the game and Von Miller is at the game. I'm like, 'Wow, OK.' He was there to see [outside linebackers coach] John Pagano's son play Pop Warner football. That's just the kind of guy he is. We were standing by Von watching the game, and 100 kids came up to him. He signed every autograph and he offered to take selfies with every kid. Adults were coming up to him. This guy's a special player, a special person. We're going to miss Von, but he'll always be a Bronco."
Two days after Miller and Paton were at the same Pop Warner game, Paton was the one who told him he would not, in fact, always be a Bronco.
"I'm the one who told him, and he was really surprised," Paton said. "It was really emotional -- for me, for Von. That's not easy. I've talked about releasing players at the 53-man cut. When you have to tell someone like Von Miller that we're trading him, that's the hardest thing I've had to do. They're human. He has his family. This is his community. I don't take that lightly. It was a really hard conversation."
It was a really hard conversation that has brought about a more uncertain future for the Broncos franchise. It is an immediate future that Paton says is not a rebuild, but it's assuredly one that will bring about a new-look Broncos team, as the face of the franchise for some many autumns has gone west to L.A., and left behind a Denver franchise looking for a new identity and direction.
