Getting healthier can only help the 4-2 Denver Broncos keep rolling.
Sunday's trip to the desert to face the 2-4 Arizona Cardinals might end up being a week too early for cornerback Patrick Surtain II — who returned to practice this week and has been listed as questionable for Week 7 — the Broncos' young secondary can be relied upon to carry the load, based on what we've seen of late.
Surtain's long-time partner in crime, Riley Moss, has been cleared to return to the starting lineup, and he's relishing the challenge the Cardinals will present on Sunday.
"Yeah, it'll be lit," Moss said this week via Denver Sports' Andrew Mason. "I'm excited."
Moss sounded relieved to be past the rib injury that sidelined him for a game and a few quarters. Such an injury can make playing cornerback a bit tricky because of how the pain restricts movement.
"The biggest thing is a lot of twisting, a lot of movements like that kind of irritate it and that's kind of my job, and it's tough," Moss said via Mason.
Moss returned to action against the Seattle Seahawks, but his playing time was limited to just 20 snaps. A rib injury can take some time to heal.
"When you're rehabbing, you kind of just have to let it heal. And then you can get into your ramp-up and get rolling," Moss said via Mason. "The good thing is, I wasn't out for too long to lose too much conditioning and stuff, but yeah, we approached it good."
CB Depth Shining
Even without the Surtain in the lineup, Jahdae Barron and Kris Abrams-Draine have really stepped up and made some big plays for defensive coordinator Vance Joseph.
Barron, the Broncos' 2025 first-round pick, is proving he has the coverage chops to hang on the boundary. The Broncos' cornerback depth has shown up at the most opportune times in each of the past two seasons, but it really saved the day over the past three weeks.
Meanwhile, slot corner Ja'Quan McMillian has also continued to excel, so when Surtain returns to man the perimeter opposite Moss, this unit will be off and running again.
Perhaps seeing the young bucks making a name for themselves made Moss a bit more anxious to get back in the lineup — even if it was only in a limited capacity last week against the Seattle Seahawks.
"I was only in for certain personnel and stuff just to kind of get ramped back up," Moss said. "It was tough because it was a short week, so we didn't really practice."
Either way you slice it, the Broncos have a talented cornerback group, and it’s a dynamic collective that’s possibly the deepest and most talented in the entire league. We'll find out on Sunday whether Surtain is back against the Cardinals.
It wouldn't be a shock to see the Broncos hold Surtain out one more week, to reinsert him at home against the Kansas City Chiefs.
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