The Chiefs staggered around the AFC West with the mother of all Super Bowl hangovers, and the Broncos helped pay for their Uber back to the playoffs.
Windows are fickle, finite beasts. Sean Payton managed to touch 2023’s sill with his pinkie before tripping over the curtains and eating his visor.
Kansas City kept dropping passes and daring somebody — anybody — else in the division to make it a race. Nobody bit. If that doesn’t chafe Broncos Country, this might: Imagine if the Chargers would somehow land Jim Harbaugh. Or if the Raiders nabbed Bill Belichick.
Year 1 of Payton and Russell Wilson was about seeing if the marriage could work, because an early divorce would be painful. But here we are, and the Broncos’ offseason shopping list, deep breath, now feels longer than Gene Simmons’ tongue: QB1 … TE … CB2 … DE … WR … LB … DL … OT …
Which means, that until the next window opens up, no one at Dove Valley should be untouchable.
Wilson’s blankety-blank contract extension is about to slingshot general manager George Paton into salary-cap purgatory, and his calls to Santa are going straight to voicemail. If somebody’s charitable enough to dangle a Day 2 pick for mercurial Jerry Jeudy? Sayonara, 10. If somebody offers a Day 3 pick for Courtland Sutton, let alone two? Godspeed, 14.
Justin Simmons? Ask for the moon and the stars, but you ask. And if your buddy guffaws when you suggest trading Pro Bowl corner Pat Surtain II to move up in the draft, or to land a better option at QB than Jarrett Stidham, quiz him or she to see if they can name any of the starting corners for the Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII this past February.
Off the top of their heads. No Googling.
Or Andy Reid’s CB1 and CB2 at Super Bowl LIV.
Or Tampa Bay’s two starting corners at Super Bowl LV.
PS2 is to cornerbacks what Anthony Munoz was to left tackles a generation or two back. A one-man eraser. So good, so dominant, so consistent, you almost forget he’s there. Shutdown corners are blessed and rare.
And yet, of the last 10 NFL champions, just five featured at least one starting cornerback who was a first-round draft pick.
As a point of comparison, every one of those 10 featured a quarterback with at least one Pro Bowl berth on their respective resume. As a point of what should be rage, nine of those 10 champs also featured a top-flight, No. 1 tight end with a Pro Bowl pedigree.
At 23 years old and with two Pro Bowl nods already over his first three seasons in Denver, Surtain is the kind of luxury item coaches dream about. But if the Broncos cut Big Russ, he might also become the kind of luxury a cap-strapped franchise can’t afford.
PS2 has a season and a fifth-year option remaining on his rookie deal, with a reported $5.7 million cap hit in 2023 and a $6.66 hit slated for 2024. But OverThe Cap.com analyst Brad Spielberger told The Denver Post’s Ryan McFadden recently that Surtain on the open market should rake in roughly $24 million to $27 million annually.
There are creative ways to shove that money down the road, yes, but it takes two sides to tango. Payton’s Saints history says he’ll max the cap out like a low-interest credit card and kick any and all dead money as far as the CBA allows. That’s somebody else’s problem, even if it is his fault.
It’s funny, though: The Broncos had the best defensive back on the field at Allegiant Stadium this past Sunday, but that didn’t stop Davante Adams from schooling Ja’Quan McMillian. Or Tre Tucker torching Fabian Moreau for kicks.
With Surtain patrolling his house, rookie Raiders QB Aidan O’Connell still threw for 244 yards, two scores, zero picks (PS2 had one slip through his mitts), and a 110.1 passer rating — the former Purdue star’s second-highest of the season.
It’s not Surtain’s fault the Broncos haven’t found a running mate who can protect the other boundary. Or that the defense often was only as good as Moreau was at holding up his side of the bargain.
In an uncapped world, you’d move Heaven and Earth before you’d move PS2. The Broncos don’t live there anymore. And the only thing at Centura Health Training Center that oughta be nailed down is Payton’s ego.
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