Report: George Paton’s interview with Colts went “extremely well”

The Indianapolis Colts are in the process of finishing up interviews with general manager candidates, as they’ve completed four of them with two remaining.

The Colts have already interviewed Chris Ballard, George Paton, Trent Kirchner, and Scott Fitterer for the job, and all four of them are very well-respected personnel guys (as are Eliot Wolf and Jimmy Raye III, who have yet to interview for the job).

We don’t know how those interviews went, but it sounds like at least one candidate really impressed: according to FOX59’s Chris Hagan, George Paton’s interview with the Colts went “extremely well.” Furthermore, Hagan said that Paton would accept the job if offered.

Paton is a respected personnel guy and has been sought after by other teams for GM openings - including the San Francisco 49ers this year. In fact, Paton is reportedly the frontrunner for the 49ers’ opening, so they’re probably following the situation in Indianapolis quite closely.

The fact that Paton would accept the Colts job after turning down some others shouldn’t surprise anyone, as it’s a similar situation with several of the candidates the Colts are interviewing. This job is a very enticing one for prospective GMs because of Andrew Luck, a young franchise quarterback who’s already in place and locked in for the long-term. So Paton’s sentiments are likely echoed by the other five candidates too: this is a very good job for a prospective GM.

Paton is the assistant general manager of the Minnesota Vikings and has been with the team for the last ten seasons, working to build a team that has quite a bit of talent and has had success, too (most notably in 2009, when they went to overtime in the NFC Championship game). He’s also worked with the Chicago Bears and Miami Dolphins in the past as well.

Jim Irsay will have plenty of good candidates to choose from, and it sounds like George Paton made a good impression in his interview with the Colts.