The tan­dem of Bron­cos head coach Sean Pay­ton and gen­er­al man­ag­er George Paton is here to stay.

Paton has dealt with scruti­ny. The team has a 20–31 record since he took over as gen­er­al man­ag­er in 2021, and he helped nego­ti­ate con­tracts with quar­ter­back Rus­sell Wil­son ($242.6 mil­lion exten­sion) and out­side line­backer Randy Gre­go­ry (five years, $70 mil­lion) that will like­ly ham­per Denver’s cap sheet this off­sea­son and beyond.

How­ev­er, Bron­cos own­er and CEO Greg Pen­ner thought Pay­ton and Paton worked well togeth­er and expressed his excite­ment to see that part­ner­ship devel­op mov­ing forward.

“I was impressed with the way they han­dled going from free agency to the draft,” Pen­ner said at Tuesday’s end-of-sea­son press con­fer­ence. “It was great to see a num­ber of young play­ers that George and his staff draft­ed pre­vi­ous­ly step up and play key roles. I thought there was improve­ment this year, and George can help us build a win­ning ros­ter here.”

Pay­ton reaf­firmed that he has had a “good work­ing rela­tion­ship” with Paton since the begin­ning, with the two talk­ing at least two to four times a day.

Mean­while, Paton believes he and Pay­ton are ahead of the game. Paton said they are aligned on how they want to build this team mov­ing for­ward and added that there was a great col­lab­o­ra­tion between coach­es and scouts.

Paton believes Payton’s detail-ori­ent­ed mind­set gives the orga­ni­za­tion a big jump for the offseason.

“Sean does a great job of describ­ing the vision he wants for each posi­tion,” Paton said. “The scouts are experts because Sean talks so much about play­ers and what they are look­ing for. (Defen­sive coor­di­na­tor) (Vance) Joseph does a good job artic­u­lat­ing as well.”

Pen­ner said he thought the Bron­cos took a step for­ward with Pay­ton and Paton despite end­ing 2023 with an 8–9 record — the team’s sev­enth straight los­ing season.

He said the team estab­lished a cul­ture based on account­abil­i­ty and excel­lence. Pen­ner allud­ed to the Bron­cos snap­ping their 16-game los­ing streak to the Chiefs and being fair­ly healthy through­out the year.

While Pen­ner sees improve­ment, Paton and Pay­ton are aware that there’s more work to be done.

“My (thoughts) on where it should be is a lit­tle bit stronger. I felt like this team had a chance to get into the post­sea­son, and I feel the same way now,” Pay­ton said. “I think we’ve begun to put togeth­er a pro­gram in place rel­a­tive to the foundation.”

Paton thinks the team needs to con­tin­ue build­ing depth through the draft. He praised the 2022 draft that fea­tured Pro Bowl return­er Mar­vin Mims Jr. while express­ing con­fi­dence in cor­ner­back Riley Moss and cen­ter Alex Forsyth — two play­ers he said can be starters in the NFL.

He’ll get anoth­er oppor­tu­ni­ty to add a major piece to the puz­zle with the No. 12 over­all pick in this spring’s draft.

“It’s impor­tant to hit on most of your picks, espe­cial­ly when you are pick­ing that high,” Paton said. “We haven’t had a first-round pick since 2021, and that one (All-Pro CB Pat Sur­tain II) worked out pret­ty well.”

Pen­ner said he’s just as impa­tient as the fans to see the fran­chise revert to its win­ning ways. He believes Pay­ton and Paton are the right ones to help accom­plish that goal.

“I’m very encour­aged. I know we have a lot of work to do to get to where we want to be, and this off­sea­son is going to be a busy one,” Pen­ner said.

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