Getty Denver Broncos' Patrick Surtain celebrates after an interception.
Second-year Denver Broncos cornerback Patrick Surtain spoke with the media Tuesday after practice and covered a variety of topics in a short time. Surtain previewed the upcoming Week 6 Los Angeles Chargers match-up from a defensive perspective, spoke about some secondary roster changes and the overall competitiveness of the AFC West.
Denver will have a, much needed, extra four days this week as they prepare for a trip to Los Angeles. “They bring us a lot of challenges to the table,” Surtain said about LA. “Obviously, they have great receivers within the offensive scheme. They both make plays, and they are tremendous playmakers on their own.”
Secondary Gets A Boost With The Return Of Justin Simmons
The longest injured reserve list in the National Football League did get a little shorter this week with three players returning to the active roster. That list includes safety Justin Simmons. “It helps a lot having a guy like Justin Simmons come back,” Patrick told reporters Tuesday. “You know, just having his presence back there in the secondary, him being vocal and commanding the defense in the back end. You know that it helps when you have him and Kareem [Jackson] back there, two veterans back there that have been in the league for a long time at a high level. They’ve been doing it at a high level, and it would be great to have him back.”
Unfortunately, the news isn’t all good this week in the defensive backfield as the Broncos look to adjust from Ronald Darby’s season-ending ACL injury. “It’s a tough loss, especially from his perspective. He’s been battling some injures, but especially this year. It’s just a tough loss, but at the end of the day, my prayers went out to him and praying for him for a speedy recovery. It was a big-time loss because he is a great player on this team, but the best thing is to move on and have guys step up.”
One of the guys that will need to step up is Damarri Mathis. Surtain says that he’s excited to see what Mathis does on the field, “[he] has been out there and making plays. I’m sure there is nothing new to him, but it’s the NFL. You have to step up when your time comes. I know that he’s going to step up to the challenge, he’s going to make plays and do his best for the defense.”
Surtain Says AFC West Is Wild This Season
Even if the AFC West as a whole has performed slightly below expectations in the early part of the 2022 season, Surtain says he still feels that it is one of the NFL’s toughest divisions to play in. “I can say that the competitiveness in the whole division is rising. You can see from last night that it was a highly-competitive game. It was going both ways and [was] a high-scoring game. It just comes down to the wire in some games like this because the division is highly talented and highly stoked. You expect those kinds of tough games throughout the week in divisional games.”
The AFC West Monday night showdown is set for October 17 at 6:15 p.m. ESPN will have the television broadcast and, as always, you can catch games on the Broncos Radio Network.