Seahawks general manager John Schneider, believing the Broncos would pursue Wilson if he was made available, texted Paton to meet at the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala.

“That’s when he asked if we would have some interest,” Paton said.

The answer was a resounding yes. Did Paton think it was a long shot?

“You don’t know,” he said. “But I’ve known John a long time and trust him and he mentioned we were one of a few teams Russell was potentially open to moving to.”

...

The sides remained in contact as the calendar flipped to February. Paton said there was never a step backward during negotiations. Paton knew it would take a combination of players and picks — and a lot of both — to get a deal done.

“We went back and forth prior to getting to the combine,” he said. “I don’t know how many times (the sides talked), but we were well on our way prior to the combine and we had exchanged different proposals.

“It heated up at the combine, for sure.”

Throughout the process, the usually collaborative Paton closed ranks within the Broncos, leaning on advisor John Elway and assistant general manager Darren Mougey.

“It was tough because I couldn’t really let them all in on it,” Paton said. “It was something we had to keep in a really tight group, 3-4 of us. I just felt there was too much to lose if this got out. It was a credit to everybody involved that, shoot, this went on for a month and it never leaked and that’s really rare.”

Paton was presented a hypothetical: Would his focus have shifted if Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers was equal parts available and wanted to play for the Broncos?

“Russell was our No. 1 priority from the moment we learned he was available,” Paton said. “We were consumed with getting him here to Denver.”

When Rodgers’ camp announced his decision to stay with the Packers on the morning of March 8, Wilson was already on a plane to Denver. Once at the Broncos’ facility, the Seahawks emailed the document waiving his no-trade clause, which he signed and returned.

About to leave the out-of-the-way Indianapolis bar that served as one of their rendezvous points during a series of secret combine-week meetings and head home for Seattle, Seahawks GM John Schneider handed Broncos GM George Paton his yellow valet tag, No. 16157, from the downtown JW Marriott. On the back was scrawled Schneider’s final proposal, if he were to agree to deal franchise quarterback Russell Wilson to Denver.

It read:

2022 – 1ST
2022 – 2ND
2023 – 1ST
2023 – 2ND

With a list of player names to follow.

And there they were, in front of Paton, the bones of a deal that took secrecy, time, strong relationships and a ton of capital to complete. It was Sunday, and by the time the sun set in Indianapolis, both guys would be on their way home, already knowing they were well on their way to fundamentally changing the foundation of two NFL franchises.

Less than two days later, Wilson was in Denver to sign a waiver to override his no-trade clause, take a physical and complete a massive trade that’ll become official on Wednesday.


...

Last Monday really was about tweaking the deal—nailing down which players would go to Seattle from Denver and adding the pick-swap nuance to it. And the virtual handshake took place late that afternoon, with Schneider granting the Broncos permission to fly Wilson in, and Wilson getting a look at the waiver he’d need to sign to move his no-trade clause out of the way of a deal.

Early Tuesday morning, Wilson, his wife, Ciara, and Rodgers boarded a private jet for Denver. They were already airborne when the news broke that Aaron Rodgers was staying in Green Bay. They were still up there an hour later, at about 11:30 a.m. MT, when their own big news broke.

Paton was sitting in his office for that one, relaxing in knowing what a couple others in the building did—that the Broncos’ new quarterback was en route. And so when the bombshell hit Twitter, with the secret still safe with a just few people, he’d given himself the chance to enjoy the reaction from his seat, hearing little celebrations explode from all around the team’s suburban Denver headquarters.

From there, Wilson arrived. Paton met with him, and then Wilson was off to summit with Hackett and his new offensive coaches, checking the final box he wanted to before officially signing the waiver, which allowed for him to take a physical on site and finish the trade. Later Tuesday, the group, appropriately, went to Elway’s Steakhouse for dinner to celebrate. And Wednesday, Wilson got a call from Elway himself to welcome him in.

For some in Denver, the day itself had a lot of the markings and trappings of a similar day 10 years ago, when Peyton Manning became a Bronco.