Sean Payton Updates Status of Broncos CB Patrick Surtain II
It remains unclear what suddenly ails Denver Broncos All-Pro cornerback Patrick Surtain II, who was inactive for last week's preseason opener and did not participate in Monday's training camp practice.
But it is clear, via tight-lipped head coach Sean Payton, that Surtain's absence should prove to be short-lived.
“I think you’re going to see him this week. I think he’s really close," Payton told reporters Monday. "We have a handful of those guys—[WR] Courtland [Sutton]. I think we have a group of four or five guys that you’ll be not asking me anything here in a couple days.”
Following a white-hot start to camp, Payton made a "coaches decision" to scratch Surtain from the team's exhibition contest at Arizona — perhaps due to the field's poor quality, fearing an aggravation of the unspecified injury. Which, in itself, went unanswered.
“I chose not to," was all Payton said in his post-game remarks when asked why he didn't play Surtain.
Second-year former undrafted free agent CB Ja'Quan McMillian started in place of Surtain, opposite Damarri Mathis. McMillian led Denver in solo tackles (5) while adding one tackle-for-loss, a sack, and quarterback hit amid the 18-17 loss.
Barring the unexpected, Surtain will return to the lineup for Saturday's preseason tilt versus the 49ers, where the first-stringers are likely to see extended time on the field — more than the 15-20 snaps they were allotted against the Cardinals.
“Jumping ahead, we’ll get a little bit more work with the [No. 1 units] in this game, and then certainly in the third game, we’ll approach it completely differently," Payton said Monday. "I was kind of pleased with the pitch count numbers. We had one player at fifty [snaps], which was high, but for the most part, our numbers were spot on. That worked out pretty well.”
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