CENTENNIAL, Colo. — One by one, Paton’s Platoon, all members comfortably dressed, stepped off its FlexJet charter at a local airport.
Ray Jackson. Patrick Smyth. Rich Hurtado. George Paton himself. Kelly Kleine. Darren Mougey.
The group of football executives had just finished a three-day, three-interview excursion with Detroit Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn at a hotel conference room in Dearborn, Mich. followed by interviews Friday afternoon with Packers’ quarterbacks coach Luke Getsy and Saturday morning with Packers’ offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett at a Green Bay hotel located in the shadow of Lambeau Field.
To their credit, each member of the Broncos’ head coach search committee looked rested, not tired, as they walked from their private plane to their cars. But do they have the energy to do seven more of these interviews in a five-day period next week?
"We’ve got plenty of energy," Paton said with a look of assurance.
RELATED: Paton-led search committee to begin head coach interviews with Glenn, then Hackett and Getsy
The next seven head coach candidate interviews will be with coaches whose teams are playing in the NFL playoffs’ wild-card round this weekend. The scheduled interviews with those seven coaches – offensive coordinators Kevin O’Connell of the Rams, the Chiefs’ Eric Bieniemy, the Bengals’ Brian Callahan and the Cowboys’ Kellen Moore; defensive coordinators Jonathan Gannon of the Eagles and the Cowboys’ Dan Quinn, plus Patriots’ inside linebackers coach Jerod Mayo – will be made after the results of their playoff games are known.
Paton would like to interview all seven candidates in person, as he did with Glenn, Getsy and Hackett.
"We’re pleased with how the process has started," Paton told 9NEWS. "We had three great candidates, three great interviews. They were all smart, had a lot of great ideas. A lot of great information. The league is in good hands with coaches like this."
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