Broncos promote Director of Player Personnel Darren Mougey to assistant GM

A year after George Paton said he would take his time to hire a right-hand man, the Denver Broncos general manager elected to promote someone from within the organization. According to NFL Network’s Ian Rappoport the Broncos are expected to name Director of Player Personnel Darren Mougey to assistant General Manager. Within a half hour the Broncos confirmed the promotion.

Mougey entered the NFL as an undrafted free agent receiver in 2009 after playing quarterback and receiver at San Diego State. After stints with the Atlanta Falcons and Arizona Cardinals, he left his playing career behind.

Mougey became a member of the Broncos in 2012 as a scouting intern, and has risen up the ranks on the scouting side of the organization since. In 2013 he was promoted to personnel and scouting assistant. In 2014 he became a personnel and college scout. He worked as an area scout from 2015-2019 covering the western region before he was promoted to Assistant Director of College Scouting in 2020. When George Paton promoted him to Director of Player personnel last May, the Broncos general manager spoke highly of Mougey’s ability to evaluate talent as well as his leadership. Now he’s the assistant GM. The move comes a little more than a year after Paton first said he would hire a right-hand man.

“Eventually I will be hiring a right-hand man, and it is my call 100 percent. I’ll talk to John, I’ll talk to Joe and Vic and make sure he’s a really good fit, but yes. I don’t know the timetable of that. I’m not in a big hurry. I really want to evaluate the staff here. I’ve heard great things about the college and pro staff, so I want to see their process. I want to get to know the guys and go through a scouting season with them before really making any decisions.”

Mougey’s promotion comes shortly after the Minnesota Vikings hired Kevin O’Connell to be their head coach. O’Connell and Mougey played together at San Diego State from 2005 to 2007. New general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah does not yet have an assistant GM.

Personally, I think this is a move that makes a ton of sense. With John Elway quickly approaching his final days in the Broncos front office it makes a ton of sense to retain Mougey as a bridge to the past regime. Beyond that Paton clearly thinks a lot of him to choose him over Kelly Kleine, who he worked with for over 10 years in Minnesota.