Broncos CB Pat Surtain II collects two significant honors
Jan 22, 2025, 11:58 AM | Updated: 11:09 pm
Pat Surtain II hasn’t yet collected the NFL’s highest defensive honor, but two awards given this week show that he might be on track to receive it.
Surtain collared two defensive-player-of-the-year awards Wednesday. The first was for the AFC alone, bestowed by the Kansas City-based Committee of 101. The second was a league-wide honor, the NFL defensive-player-of-the-year award given by the Pro Football Writers of America.
The fourth-year veteran became just the fourth cornerback given the PFWA award in 33 seasons of voting, joining New England’s Stephon Gilmore in 2019, Green Bay’s Charles Woodson in 2009 and San Francisco’s Deion Sanders in 1994.
Surtain hasn’t quite had a clean sweep of the 2024 honors. Browns edge rusher Myles Garrett earned the defensive-player honors handed out by Pro Football Focus earlier this month. But the PFWA award is historically considered a strong indicator of how the voting will go for the NFL’s official Defensive Player of the Year award, which is administered by the Associated Press and will be named NFL Honors in New Orleans on Feb. 6.
In the 32 previous seasons that the PFWA named a defensive player of the year, 28 of them saw its winner earn the NFL’s official DPOY trophy The only exceptions were in 1993 (Bruce Smith by the PFWA and Rod Woodson by the AP), 2010 (Clay Matthews and Troy Polamalu, respectively), 2013 (Robert Quinn and Luke Kuechly) and 2017 (Calais Campbell and Aaron Donald).
The Broncos haven’t had a Defensive Player of the Year since eventual Hall of Famer Randy Gradishar earned the honor in 1978.
Surtain allowed opposing quarterbacks to compile a 58.9 passer rating on 62 times he was targeted this season, as calculated by SportRadar.com. He also earned his second first-team All-Pro selection and his third Pro Bowl trip in just four seasons.
