EmailPrintOpen Extended ReactionsENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- Before the season began, Denver Broncos cornerback Pat Surtain II penned a first-person offering in the Players' Tribune that closed with the phrase "Let me just tell you straight up: You're making a big mistake if you're trying to write off Denver."Less than a month later, Surtain's season, the Broncos' defensive plan and the team's overall fortunes have taken a hit -- though not as big of a hit as originally feared. Surtain, who left Sunday's loss to the San Francisco 49ers just before halftime, could miss multiple games with a right ankle injury, according to ESPN's Jeremy Fowler. But even though Surtain avoided a season-ending injury, even a missed series would impact the Broncos, who have an AFC West matchup Sunday against the Los Angeles Chargers in SoFi Stadium followed by a short turnaround for a Thursday night affair against the reigning Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks.Surtain is a two-time first-team All Pro and was the NFL's Defensive Player of the Year in 2024. And his status as the game's best cornerback and one of the linchpins of the Broncos' defensive plan means the proverbial "next man up" will have one of the most difficult assignments in the NFL."Of course, [on Monday] and throughout the week, really we'll stay away from any updates,'' Broncos coach Sean Payton said Monday. "Guys were all in getting work and rehabbing."Surtain's absence, no matter how long, would impact how the Broncos construct their pass rush and coverage plans along with their ability to match a cornerback on the league's best wide receivers as often as they do with him. With fellow outside cornerback Riley Moss also leaving Sunday's game with a rib injury shortly after Surtain went down, the Broncos' pass defense could look vastly different in the weeks ahead."You'll go 16 weeks, and that might happen once every two years, but you have to be ready," coach Sean Payton said of the timing of the two CB injuries. "It affects if you can get into dime ... it may take you out of some packages."On a first-and-10 play from the 49ers' 42-yard line with 30 seconds left in the first half, 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy completed a 4-yard pass to Christian McCaffrey. But away from the play, Surtain pivoted in coverage and began to hop on his left foot, keeping his right foot off the ground. He was taken to the locker room and evaluated, then underwent additional tests Sunday night and Monday by the team's medical staff.Jahdae Barron (2025 first-round pick) and Kris Abrams-Draine (2024 fifth-round pick) played outside corner for the remainder of Sunday's game. They held their own in most individual matchups with the 49ers' wide receivers in the 24-14 loss, but Purdy accumulated 129 of his 218 passing yards in the second half, along with both of his touchdown passes.After the game, teammates expressed confidence in Barron and Abrams-Draine. Said wide receiver Jaylen Waddle on Abrams-Draine: "KD can hold his own. He's elite, he's here for a reason. I'm excited for him to get a shot.""I thought they came in and did a real good job,'' Payton said. "It was good to see. I think it's a position we have depth at, and those guys both kind of got thrown into the fire and I thought they handled it well.''But the Broncos' ability to do some of their favorite things on defense -- like add defensive backs to their varied pass rush approach and use Surtain in solo matchups on the league's best receivers so they can be flexible with coverage plans elsewhere -- would be impacted by the All-Pro's absence.That's a "no-duh" assessment on the surface, but the Broncos had the most sacks in the league by defensive backs last season (7.5) and were one of only two teams to get at least 25 pass-rush snaps from three different defensive backs (safety Talanoa Hufanga, nickel cornerback Ja'Quan McMillian and safety Brandon Jones). Hufanga showed his pass-rushing chops in Week 3, coming up with a key drive-stopping sack in a victory over the Rams. Broncos defensive coordinator Vance Joseph has said that how often he sends five or more rushers at the quarterback can be dictated "by what we do with Pat and how we create the rush and coverage plan around that."According to ESPN tracking, the Broncos have played the fifth-most man-to-man snaps in the league over the first four games of the season (57.9%) and have three of the top 12 players in the league -- Surtain, Moss and Jones -- in man coverage snaps. While Joseph says the Broncos' zone-match concepts in coverage are often confused with man-to-man in some advanced metrics, the absence of Surtain, as well as Moss, will impact how they cover."He's a big part of our defense," Abrams-Draine said of Surtain on Sunday. "... There's no question about that, we just have to find a way to play. We've put in the work, me and Jahdae, we have to be ready to do what we need to do."
