Patrick Surtain II & Justin Simmons Earn A.P. All-Pro Honors
Despite the rather disappointing 2022 regular season, a few Denver Broncos are being recognized for their play for this past season. With the first and second-team A.P. All-Pro teams being named, the Broncos have two defensive backs who earned honors in cornerback Patrick Surtain II and safety Justin Simmons.
Surtain earns his second first-team All-Pro nod of the year after being named to the NFLPA's inaugural team, and he becomes the only cornerback in the NFL to be listed first-team by both organizations (and the first in history to do so given this was the first season ever the NFLPA listed an All-Pro team). New York Jets rookie cornerback Sauce Gardner joins Surtain on the A.P.'s first-team All-Pro list.
Surtain is also the only Broncos player to garner a Pro Bowl nod this season. At just 22 years old, he's not only a great player for the Broncos but an emerging superstar at one of the most important positions on a football team as a shutdown boundary cornerback.
The Broncos have massive question marks entering this offseason, including which cornerback will be playing opposite Surtain on the boundary, as well as bolstering a pass rush unit that fell off a cliff to close the season with injuries and the Bradley Chubb trade. It’s nice to know Surtain gives Denver one of the best defensive building blocks in the entire NFL.
This season marks Simmons’ third time being listed as an AP second-team All-Pro. Despite missing five games this season after suffering a knee injury in Week 1, Simmons tied for the NFL lead in defensive takeaways created with nine, notching six interceptions with three forced fumbles.
Simmons' start to the season was a bit up and down coming off of his knee injury with some inconsistencies in his open-field tackling and run gap responsibilities, but with how he took the ball away in the second half of the season, he rightfully earned the third All-Pro honor of his career. Joining Simmons as a second-team All-Pro is Los Angeles Chargers safety Derwin James with the first-team nods going to Pittsburgh's Minkah Fitzpatrick and San Francisco’s Talanoa Hufanga.
Also earning All-Pro votes was Broncos linebacker Alex Singleton. Wracking up an incredible 163 combined tackles on the season, Singleton was very much considered an afterthought when he signed a one-year, $1,115,000 contract this past offseason.
Now entering free agency again, it will be curious to see what the market looks like for Singleton this upcoming offseason and if Denver chooses to re-sign Singleton to pair with Josey Jewell at linebacker.
The Broncos had a very underwhelming 2022 season, and the team has a ways to go in order to break back into postseason play in 2023. However, with Surtain and Simmons together in the backfield, Denver has two of the best secondary players in the NFL.
If Russell Wilson and the offense can maintain their end-of-season form, the pass rush reverts to its levels from the first half of the season, the team brings in a competent coaching staff, and Denver has some positive injury luck (for once!) next season, perhaps the Broncos can be feistier next season than their final record this season showed.
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