Vikings promote Paton to assistant GM

The Vikings have promoted George Paton to assistant general manager to keep him from going to the St. Louis Rams.

The Vikings announced the promotion of George Paton to assistant general manager after he became a finalist for the general manager job with the St. Louis Rams, where he likely would have had to answer to new head coach Jeff Fisher.

According to the Vikings’ web site, Paton decided late Friday he wanted to remain with the Vikings organization.

Paton had been the director of player personnel for the last five years under Rick Spielman, who was promoted from vice president of player personnel to general manager last month.

“George has been an integral part of our personnel department since he arrived in 2007,” Spielman told Vikings.com on Saturday. “His work ethic, leadership , professionalism and keen eye for identifying talented football players will continue to be a major asset for our organization as we take on the challenges of competing in the NFC North and winning the Super Bowl.”

Paton has been Spielman’s right-hand man since they joined the club in 2007, with Paton focusing on coordinating scouting and personnel functions in the pro scouting department. Prior to that, Paton spent six seasons with the Miami Dolphins’ personnel department and was with the Chicago Bears before that.

Within hours of the Vikings announcing that Paton pulled out of the running for the Rams job, Atlanta Falcons director of player personnel Les Snead accepted the St. Louis job.

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