Even without Pat Surtain, Vance Joseph expects ‘no drop-off’ from Broncos’ secondary

On Thursday afternoon Broncos safety JL Skinner sat scrolling on his phone at Bo Nix s locker A team-issued iPad sat nearby plugged into a nearby charging port Skinner s device was dead This was a bad week to have a dead iPad Skinner had film to watch Everyone in the secondary had film to watch Life changes with Pat Surtain II injured and unavailable Shoot he s Pat Surtain man Skinner mused He takes away the number-one every time You never have to worry about it There is little historical precedent for a Vance Joseph-coached defense in Denver without Surtain the reigning defensive participant of the year Surtain has missed one battle since Joseph took command in sitting with a concussion in a - win over the Saints last year and a half of football against Dallas last week Joseph has advised reporters multiple times that this Broncos defense tries to funnel the ball in Surtain s direction So how do Joseph and the Broncos adjust now with the best man-coverage corner in the NFL possibly out for several weeks with a pectoral strain They don t Skinner made clear At least not in overall philosophy We re playing good man Skinner narrated The Denver Post We got White Boy Rick over there So we ain t really worried man We got Mobile s Finest in KAD too so we ain t really worried When Surtain didn t trot out of the locker room after halftime against the Cowboys the Broncos defense didn t think anything of it safety Brandon Jones disclosed The championship plan was the same Jones revealed even as a second-year cornerback cycled in There is enough faith in White Boy Rick new CB Riley Moss and Mobile s Finest Mobile Alabama native Kris Abrams-Draine Obviously when we gameplan it goes through Pat because it makes it easier right Joseph commented on Thursday You can be aggressive and you can play certain coverages with Pat that you can t play with other guys But we do have a system that fits all players It s invariably players first and system second so we can adjust promptly The NFL world knows Moss at this point He has the hardest job on the Broncos defense in playing next to Surtain as Joseph revealed a couple of weeks back and is now officially the most-targeted member in the NFL through eight games He is tied for the majority penalties drawn among NFL cornerbacks according to Pro Football Focus He has also surrendered the lowest catch percentage of any athlete with at least targets according to Next Gen Stats Denver s locker room has shown nothing but complete trust in Moss even now playing in the biggest spot of his career with Surtain out They call him a great number of names White Boy Rick of class after Rick Wershe Jr the famous youth FBI informant Sometimes just Moss Or Riley Or White Chocolate Surtain stated on his podcast lately that he believes personnel are racial profiling my dawg That s the coldest white boy we done ever seen man Skinner explained of Moss Less is known publicly about Abrams-Draine who stepped in for Surtain in the second half against the Cowboys to mixed results He had a massive pick of Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert last year as a rookie But his snaps were spent next to Surtain not in place of him Suddenly the second-year Mizzou product is the next man up in place of the DPOY He s extremely intelligent Payton declared of Abrams-Draine this week and I would say he might have the best hands on this gang He s got elite ball skills This of unit will not be a direct one-to-one replacement Joseph announced Thursday that Denver has a plan to pull Surtain s weight with multiple guys a feasible nod to more snaps for first-round rookie Jahdae Barron who s primarily been used as an extra defensive back in dime packages Joseph did appear to shift overall approaches slightly in the second half last Sunday The Broncos started the tournament against the Cowboys with a insufficient looks of versatile safety Talanoa Hufanga either blitzing or playing near the line of scrimmage After Surtain suffered a pec strain just before halftime though Joseph had five minutes to adjust On their first play of the third quarter the Broncos pivoted at once on their first play to positioning safeties Jones and Hufanga deep in the secondary on first down Related Articles Amid career year Broncos RB J K Dobbins says he hopes to end my career here in Denver Broncos ILB Dre Greenlaw talks suspension workload and getting back on the field I can go all day Broncos K Wil Lutz named AFC special teams contestant of the month for October From Joshua Tree to a th NFL season in a day TE Marcedes Lewis is thrilled to be with the Broncos Broncos CB Pat Surtain II on podcast Your boy s going to be back out there in no time Moss described The Post on Sunday that Joseph called more two-deep safety looks to protect us over top And on film it appeared Denver deployed softer coverages against the Cowboys without Surtain Much of that was meeting situation though with the Broncos holding a double-digit lead throughout the second half And overall Hufanga played about an equal number of snaps in coverage in the first and second half against the Cowboys a sign that Joseph didn t feel the need to constantly drop his safeties back for lack of trust in his corners The Broncos will naturally look different against Houston without Surtain It s a tough matchup as Texans receiver Nico Collins torched the Broncos for yards and a touchdown in the company s last matchup in But Joseph expects no drop-off he commented Thursday Standard doesn t change Joseph declared Want more Broncos news Sign up for the Broncos Insider to get all our NFL analysis