Pat Surtain II voted as best cornerback in the NFL heading into 2025

Pat Surtain II is the best defensive player in the NFL, which was cemented when he won the league’s Defensive Player of the Year Award in the winter. He shut down an entire half of the field for the Denver Broncos in 2024 as he helped lead a defense that was arguably the best overall unit in the league. Heading into 2025, league coaches, executives and scouts made sure to give him his respect, and voted him as the top corner in the NFL.

Top 10 Corners in the league according to Executives, Coaches and Scouts, via @JFowlerESPN

1: Pat Surtain
2: Derek Stingley Jr
3: Denzel Ward
4: Trent McDuffie
5: Sauce Gardner
6: Christian Gonzalez
7: Jaycee Horn
8: Jaylon Johnson
9: Quinyon Mitchell
10: Devon Witherspoon… pic.twitter.com/44CzF2k7bL

— JPAFootball (@jasrifootball) July 17, 2025

This is the same poll that has seen other Broncos get some votes, but not enough to crack the top 10. Quinn Meinerz is the only exception, who was ranked as the eighth-best interior offensive lineman despite earning First-Team All-Pro honors in 2024.

Besides Surtain, the Broncos haven’t been getting the respect they deserve in these rankings.

“Complete package — size, speed, good tackler, good ball skills, smart and instinctive,” said an AFC executive.

Surtain, 25, is heading into his fifth year in the NFL with the Broncos after improving in each of his first four seasons in the Mile High City. While the stat sheet might not reflect it, as he had a career-low in total tackles last season, the tape does. Cornerbacks can’t be judged on the stats alone, because a guy who is on the field as much as Surtain and doesn’t put up out-of-this-world stats shows that he doesn’t get much action from opposing offenses. His 45 tackles were by far a career-low, but his four interceptions were tied for a career-best.

Don’t forget about his pick-six that flipped the momentum of the Raiders game early in the season.

100-YARD PICK SIX FOR PAT SURTAIN II 💯

📺 FOX pic.twitter.com/8nnNccBMBI

— FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) October 6, 2024

He has every single tool in his arsenal that makes any player an elite NFL cornerback, and the Broncos have reaped the benefits of selecting him ninth overall in the 2021 NFL Draft. They are also reaping the benefits of signing him to a contract extension early, as the contract that made him the highest-paid corner in the league last summer is now just the fifth-highest contract at the position, even after he won DPOY. $24 million a year seemed like a lot a year ago when he inked the deal with Denver, but now it’s a steal.

No other Bronco received a vote, showing that while Surtain is an out-of-this-world talent, there is a big hole on the other side of the field, which the Cleveland Browns and Cincinnati Bengals exposed late in the season. Whether Riley Moss is the answer, or another player who’s not on the radar at the moment, that other corner spot needs to get figured out if they want to slow down the Buffalo’s, and Kansas City’s of the league.

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