ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — Pat Surtain II is out and Dre Greenlaw in back.
Denver's defense saw some shuffling this week as the Broncos (6-2) prepared to put their five-game winning streak on the line Sunday at Houston, where the Texans (3-4) were installed as slight favorites.
Surtain, the NFL's reigning Defensive Player of the Year, is expected to miss multiple games with a strained left pectoral muscle he injured while making a tackle last week in Denver's 44-24 rout of the Dallas Cowboys.
He'll be replaced in the starting lineup by second-year pro Kris Abrams-Draine, whom coach Sean Payton said this week has the best hands on the team.
"Not having Pat's going to be huge for us," defensive coordinator Vance Joseph said Thursday. "But I expect no drop-off. The standard doesn't change."
It sure helps they'll be getting Greenlaw back from his one-game suspension for berating referee Brad Allen following Denver's historic come-from-behind 33-32 win over the New York Giants two weeks ago.
"I just shouldn't have put my teammates in that position," Greenlaw said Thursday in his first public comments since his suspension. "That was just an emotional game, first game back."
That game marked Greenlaw's Denver debut after he missed the first seven weeks of the season with a quadriceps injury that lingered for six months.
Greenlaw, who missed most of last year after tearing an Achilles tendon in the 2024 Super Bowl between his former team, the San Francisco 49ers, and the Kansas City Chiefs, had six tackles in just 21 snaps against the Giants.
"I thought it went well. We won the game. It felt good for me to go out there after a year and a-half just to play football," Greenlaw said. "I felt like the game went good, but that's two weeks ago now so I don't even know how that game went, man."
After making a splash in his Denver debut, Greenlaw had to miss yet another game, something he called "very difficult."
"Of course you want to be out there anytime you've got a game, but I mean just whoop the Texans, that's all I can think of," Greenlaw said.
Greenlaw said he's confident he'll slip right back into his role despite a dearth of practice reps since he got injured in the spring, not long after signing a three-year, $31.5 million free agent contract.
"We've got a great defense already. Guys are flying around making plays. And for me, I just want to be a part of that, just want to have fun out there with them and show them what I can do," he said.
Although he was on a strict pitch count two weeks ago, Greenlaw is angling for much more playing time against the Texans.
The more the Broncos can get out of Greenlaw, the better, especially as they deal with the absence of Surtain, whom Joseph has called the fulcrum of the defense around which he builds his entire scheme.
"Obviously, you're never as good as you could be without your best player," Joseph said. "But I'm confident in our group. It's a hand-picked roster and every year you talk about next man up. So, here's a chance for a young player to come play and make a name for himself."
Not that Abrams-Draine will have to bear the burden by himself.
That will fall on the rest of the secondary, including starting cornerback Riley Moss, rookie Jahdae Barron and the front-seven, including Greenlaw.
"We have a good plan to kind of pull Pat's weight with multiple guys. It won't just be one guy. It will be all of us, our D-line providing pass rush and our young DBs just playing it right and playing to the system," Joseph said.
Joseph is thrilled to get Greenlaw back on the field to help share that load after such a tantalizing appetizer against the Giants.
"Mentally, he's been awesome. He's been locked in. He's been studying. Even when he wasn't practicing, he was taking every walk-through rep. So, mentally he's fine," Joseph said. "Physically, obviously, he needs more reps to kind of get his football air. He was a little tired in his first game. But it's good having him back."
And Greenlaw said he's eager to add to an already elite defense that leads the league in sacks (36), third-down percentage (39.9) and red-zone percentage (40.0) and is top-5 in net yards and points allowed per game.
"For me it's not about me coming in and trying to be more or do more," Greenlaw said. "It's just about me going out there, being myself, because that's why they brought me here."
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