The eyes have it.
We don’t talk about Pat Surtain II’s vision nearly enough. Great cornerbacks are football’s tawny owls, the biggest of the big-game hunters, dogging prey through darkness and chaos. PSII spies where a ball is headed seconds before it leaves the station. Talent borrows. Genius steals.
And as Champ Bailey, one of the best corners of all time, reminded me the other day, you can’t catch what you don’t see first. So when I asked Champ what Surtain, the reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year, could do for an encore in 2025, Bailey hit it right on the nose.
Actually, right above the nose.
“(PSII) is probably smarter than he’s been throughout his career,” Bailey, the NFL’s all-time leader in pass break-ups and a Broncos cornerback from 2004-2013, told me by phone earlier this month. “But the only way you utilize that is by seeing what’s going on, seeing the plays develop, the route concepts, and having a better understanding of your role in the defense.
“… I’m sure (defensive coordinator) Vance Joseph is thinking about this: How do you put him in position to make plays? The best way to make plays is to allow him to see the ball.”
There’s just one problem: The better you are at cornerback, the fewer balls actually come your way. And Surtain is the best cornerback on the planet.
He was charted with 60 targets in 2024. That was after 91 in ’23 and 70 in ’22. Unofficially.
“We know this dude competes every play, whether the ball’s coming at him or not,” Bailey, the Pro Football Hall of Famer and analyst with Warner Bros. Discovery/TNT, said of Surtain. “And it’s going to come less and less the better he gets.”
The larger the legend, the smaller the windows. Yet the greats also have the vision — and foresight — to impact the action that’s actively avoiding them. In 2005, Bailey recorded eight interceptions, returning two for scores, and defended 23 passes.
The next year, he was thrown at just 35 times all season. Bailey wound up deflecting 21 throws and picking off 10 others. His 98 tackles, 84 of them solo, ranked third on a defense that had Al Wilson (113 stops) and Ian Gold (101) at linebacker.
Last winter, PSII became just the seventh cornerback to ever take home NFL Defensive Player of the Year honors from the Associated Press. No CB1 has ever won the award twice.
Pat Surtain II (2) of the Denver Broncos greets fans before a preseason game against the San Francisco 49ers at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California, on Saturday, Aug. 9, 2025. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)
Pat Surtain II (2) of the Denver Broncos greets fans before a preseason game against the San Francisco 49ers at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, on Saturday, Aug. 9, 2025. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)
Bailey wouldn’t be shocked if Surtain, who turned 25 in April, became the first. So long as he follows two sage pieces of advice. 1.) Fight the boredom, kid. 2.) Then get out there and fight for the blankety-blank tackle.
“You could (be bored) if you allow it,” Bailey said. “But there are so many aspects of the game that are important.
“Like tackling, making sure you don’t miss tackles. You don’t want to ever be that guy that (they say), ‘He’s great, he’s going to shut his guy down, but he’s going to miss a tackle.’ You never want to be that guy with chinks like that.
“And (Surtain) is not that. He’s big. He has the size. I look forward to seeing him mix it up a lot more this year.”
Wideouts? Yeah, not so much.
PSII is 6-foot-2 with an 80-foot game, a 202-pound cudgel and the wingspan — and eyes — to erase half a football field. Box girders have more fat on them than Surtain, who Pro Football Focus scouts charted with zero missed tackles and an 80.5 run defense grade (out of 100) in 2024.
“(Pat) had such a great year. How do you build on that? I think that’s focus,” Broncos general manager George Paton told The Post recently. “He wants to be Defensive Player of the Year again, I’m sure, but he just wants to win. So (that means) helping his teammates get better and prepare. Pat doesn’t say a lot, but he’s a great leader and they follow him. Winning. That’s how his (2025) gets better.”
PSII is entering the prime of his career as the bulwark and apex to one of the fastest, frenetic, pocket-crunching, QB-mashing defenses in Broncos history.
Of the eight players who’ve won multiple NFL DPOY honors, seven did so a second time for a team with a winning record. When it comes to the postseason, legends make sure to see that train right through to the end.
Pat Surtain II (2) of the Denver Broncos stretches during training camp at Broncos Park in Centennial on Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2025. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)
Pat Surtain II (2) of the Denver Broncos stretches during training camp at Broncos Park in Centennial on Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2025. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)
“You can’t make a play on something you don’t see,” Bailey said. “Think about the picks (Surtain) had last year. Every time he got an interception, he was in a position where he could see what was coming. I mean, I think the pick-6 he had against the Raiders, I don’t even think that was his guy. He just saw the ball coming. And he’s an exceptional athlete.
“When you can anticipate, see what’s happening, and then react the way he does, he’s going to make a significant amount of plays. I’m looking forward to (2025).”
Turns out that kind of vision goes both ways. When it comes to PSII, Bailey can see something else off in the distance, just past the horizon: Dominion. Domination. Clear as day.