While you can certainly take issues with some of George Paton’s decisions, he predominantly hit home run after home run in his first offseason as the Denver Broncos general manager.

Now we just have to wait and see which of those players can be major contributors for a Broncos team primed to take the next step, but who is most likely to be that major contributor?

Let’s take a look.

Honorable Mentions

Cameron Fleming/Bobby Massie: The right tackle position has been a turnstile on Denver’s offensive line for close to a decade, and the Ja’Wuan James signing that was supposed to fill that gap, has been an utter disaster.

That leaves the Broncos still pining for average tackle play on the right side of their line. If either of the veteran editions, Cameron Fleming or Bobby Massie, can provide even replacement-level tackle play, it would make a massive impact on the offense, and arguably leave quarterback as the lone remaining question mark.

Patrick Surtain II/Ronald Darby: Both Patrick Surtain II and Ronald Darby will make a large impact on the 2021 Broncos simply by providing depth to a secondary unit that found themselves fatally-shallow a season ago.

Following Bryce Callahan’s All-Pro-caliber play and Kyle Fuller’s stardom and familiarity with Vic Fangio, it seems like Surtain and Darby will battle it out for the final starting cornerback spot. As a result, they’re likely to cannibalize each other’s snaps to some extent.

That paired with the fact that Darby has a checkered history with injuries and Surtain is a rookie cornerback, and that first-year players are known to struggle at cornerback, are why they land in the honorable mentions section.

Baron Browning: Baron Browning is a remarkable athlete at a position that has troubled the Broncos defense for a long time, but his impact in year one might be limited. His slow processing ability might have been the biggest concern with him as a prospect, and that’s an issue that will rear its head frequently as Browning is familiarizing himself with the defense.

The sky is the limit for Browning and the Broncos could definitely use someone like him, which is why he gets an honorable mention, but it would probably be best for all parties if he’s given time to acclimate

Javonte Williams

There’s a lot of things the Broncos ‘haven’t had’ since at least 2015. They haven’t had a quarterback, an athletic linebacker, a competent right tackle, and maybe most importantly at all, any semblance of an identity during that span.

For example, quick, tell me the identity of the 2017 Denver Broncos.

You can’t. They didn’t have one.

Maybe their defense was good, but it wasn’t an identity. It didn’t even rank top 10 in DVOA, it ranked among the bottom half of the league in pass defense DVOA and it ranked in the bottom third of the league in points allowed. A similar argument could be made for each of the past five teams the Broncos have fielded.

By trading up to select Javonte Williams, the Broncos have the opportunity to establish an identity.

They can be a defensive team with a ball-control offense that causes havoc on the ground, because Williams has the makings of a high-end workhorse back. In turn, that should minimize how much harm a questionable starting quarterback can do.

Having a dangerous running game should be a massive boon for Drew Lock.

While the usefulness of play action isn’t impacted much by how effective the running back is, the frequency at which play action is called is impacted by the running back’s effectiveness. That matters a lot for Lock, considering no quarterback saw a greater disparity between their performance on play-action dropbacks and non-play-action dropbacks than he did.

Sure, Melvin Gordon was already on the roster but he’s been on the decline for multiple seasons now and running backs his age rarely bounceback, meaning it’s unlikely he coould be the catalyst for formulating such an identity.

Williams, on the other hand, is in his prime as a running back, and if he lives up to expectations, he could have a Nick-Chubb-esque impact in Denver.

To that point, on top of providing an identity, Williams should put up terrific numbers his rookie season. Williams was incredibly efficient as a running back for the Tar Heels, as demonstrated by the fact he led the draft’s running backs in touchdown+first-down rate despite not being a home-run hitter. That’s remarkable.

He can take the starting job from Gordon early, and never look back on his way to an 1,000 yard season.

Kyle Fuller

The last time Kyle Fuller played in Vic Fangio’s system, he was an All-Pro, and maybe even the best cornerback in the league.

The pairing of Fuller and Fangio is a perfect marriage, because Fuller’s hard-hitting, aggressive, lurking nature is perfect for Fangio’s defense. Adding Callahan as the nickel corner makes the cocktail even more deadly for opposing cornerbacks.

Some may wonder if the Bears released Fuller because he’s over the hill and whether or not he’ll stiill be able to produce at a similarly-high level at this point in their career, but they really shouldn’t.

Fuller showed that he could still play at a high-level, despite the drop-off from Fangio to Chuck Pagano as defensive coordinator. He finished among the league’s top 10 cornerbacks with at least 500 snaps in completion percentage allowed, targets allowed per snap, and receptions allowed per snap.

Being a member of this loaded Broncos defense should only lead to those numbers improving further.

Teddy Bridgewater

Despite how painful this pill is to swallow, on paper Teddy Bridgewater is the best quarterback the Denver Broncos have had since Peyton Manning, and as a result, tops this list.

Bridgewater is far from being a flashy quarterback, but he’s one of the few remaining ‘game managers’ in the league and thats all this loaded Broncos roster might need, especially if Williams performs as forecasted above.

What this roster can’t afford is Lock’s high-turnover rate, where Bridgewater would be an improvement.

There lies Bridgewater’s true value to Denver’s roster: He raises the floor of the position.

Lock making a miraculous and nearly-unprecedented leap to super stardom remains the team’s ceiling at quarterback — and frankly Bridgewater doesn’t come close there — but Bridgewater should help protect the Broncos from disaster.

Yes, Lock was abysmal last year but let’s not forget that we were forced to watch 15 quarters (nearly a quarter of the season) of Brett Rypien, Jeff Driskel, and Kendall Hinton. That will not happen in 2021, as the backup quarterback position has been elevated by a ton.

Not only are the Broncos now protected from injury — which has to be a consideration based on the start of Lock’s career — but also from Lock flaming out.

If Lock does go up in smoke there will certainly be questions about failing to trade for Rodgers and passing up Fields and how doing so damages the team’s long term future, Bridgewater will be able to keep this talented roster afloat and in contention into December.

Superstar quarterback play is certainly preferable, but at this point, it feels greedy to pass up meaningful football in December.