It’s getting a little crowded on the Mount Rushmore of Broncos cornerbacks. But when it comes to monuments, the kids up in the Grading The Week offices figure you best not take Pat Surtain II for granite anymore.
PS2 added another gold star to an already sterling career report card last week when he was named the NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year by the Pro Football Writers of America, becoming the first-ever Broncos player to receive the award since its inception in 1992.
Over his first four seasons, the 2021 first-round pick out of Alabama has averaged three picks and 11 passes defended, being named to three Pro Bowls already despite so rarely being thrown at.
the pencil-pushers among the GTW crew uncovered some stats to prove just how special, and rare, Surtain’s performances have been.
PS2 making history again — A
According to the site, only three times has a Broncos defensive back since 2004 held opposing quarterbacks to a season passer rating of 62.0 or lower while being targeted — and two of those seasons belong to PS2. In 2021, signal-callers posted a passer rating of 61.3 when throwing at Surtain. This past fall, PS2 was even stingier, allowing opponents a 58.9 passer rating. Over the last 20 years, among Denver defensive backs targeted at least 10 times in a season, only ex-Broncos safety Justin Simmons has held opposing QBs to a lower passer rating, posting a 43.6 opponent PR in 2019.
Another superlative, per Pro-Football-Reference.com: Since 2004, there’ve also been three seasons in which a Broncos defensive back who’d been targeted at least 10 times allowed fewer than six yards per target. Again, Surtain has put up two of those seasons, giving up just 5.7 yards anytime a ball was thrown his way in 2021, and a career-best 5.3 yards allowed per target in 2024.
When it comes to the best Broncos corners, every generation can claim their favorite. But with all due respect to the No-Fly Zone combo of Chris Harris and Aqib Talib, PS2 appears to have vaulted himself to no worse than third in the argument, running alongside all-time greats Champ Bailey and Louis Wright in the battle for the No. 1 spot in franchise history.
Pete Carroll to the Raiders if you’re a Broncos fan — C-minus
The Raiduhs? Going the safe, sensible route at coach? Clearly, Mark Davis must be listening to Tom Brady. And clearly, Carroll must be desperate. Either that, or he misses Jim Harbaugh that much.
Regardless, the AFC West now features four coaches who’ve taken a team to at least one Super Bowl in their respective careers, with only Harbaugh not having actually won the thing. Ain’t that a kick? Just when the Broncos finally turn this thing around with an old, proven coach, the Raiduhs steal a chapter from the Penner family playbook. The Silver and Black aren’t going anywhere in this division without a Bo Nix of their own, though.
Pete Carroll to the Raiders if you’re a Buffs fan — A
Not that Team GTW really believed that Deion Sanders was going anywhere, least of all to the NFL, but the jobs in both Vegas and Dallas (Cowboys) came off the board on Friday within hours of each other.
The GTW crew was thoroughly convinced that Jerry Jones was never going to give Coach Prime — or any other candidate — the breadth and swath to do that job the way they wanted to. Davis was certainly kooky enough to turn his franchise over to the Sanders family, but that’s a hard gig in what’s becoming football’s toughest division. Other than money, Boulder still has more of what Sanders and his management like: Total control of the operation and a chance to win some kind of championship — a Big 12 one, in this case — quicker than Coach Prime would’ve had the chance to do in either Dallas or Sin City.
