ENGLEWOOD — Pat Surtain is no stranger to the Pro Bowl, he was just there last year.

Justin Simmons and Marvin Mims Jr. are for different reasons, though. The former’s other selection came during the 2020 season when it was virtual, and the highlight was a game of Madden played with the Pro Bowl rosters. The latter is barely even familiar with the league yet as a first-year receiver who earned his spot as the team’s starting kick returner.

The three were named to the AFC starting unit Wednesday thanks to polls of coaches, fans and players, and Mims became just the third rookie in franchise history to make it when he was named the team’s kick returner — the last was Phillip Lindsay in 2018, and the other was Von Miller in 2011.

Alongside the three, guard Quinn Meinerz and fullback Mike Burton were named alternates for the team. Surtain was also named the team’s Demaryius Thomas Most Valuable Player award winner by the team’s reporters from the Pro Football Writers Association.

Peers voting for the three took them over the top to starting Pro Bowl spots — coaches and players each account for a third of the voting.

“It means a lot,” Simmons said. “When you get to a point in this league, and you get recognized for your play from the opposing coaches, opposing players and (people) like that, it means a lot when your name gets put up there with some of the best in our league.”

Meinerz and Burton are in a similar spot Simmons once was.

Both put up standout years at their respective positions but fell short of overtaking starters in Miami’s Alec Ingold and a trio of guards headlined by Indianapolis’ Quenton Nelson and Cleveland’s Joel Bitonio.

It fueled Simmons to keep making strides on the field, and eventually paid off with his two selections in the last four years.

Simmons and Surtain have been the leaders of the defensive’s turnaround en route to their selections. A 70-20 loss to Miami in the season’s third week sparked both personnel changes in the form of multiple veterans being shipped away, but also a drive to get it turned around, led by Vance Joseph whose even-keel nature as the team’s defensive coordinator paid off.

When they had made stops, Mims stepped in as the league’s preeminent returner. His 17.4 yards per punt return leads the league and his 26.3 yards per kick return average is the top mark in the AFC.

His growth was akin to drinking from a firehouse.

“It’s a little different — in college, right when the ball is snapped, everyone can kind of run down the field. In the NFL, you’re given way more space,” Mims said. “You spend way more time with the special teams coach in the NFL than you do in college.”

Special teams coordinator Ben Kotwica played a role, but so did Tremon Smith.

The sixth-year cornerback has been in Mims’ ear, helping the rookie with the “ins and outs” of returning in the NFL. The “nerve-wracking” feeling of 200-plus-pound athletes sprinting down the field at you faded Mims said, and in turn he was able to make a difference on special teams. In the future, he may be tasked with a bigger role on offense, too.

There’s excitement for the trio in meeting players from across the league and earning a front-row seat to see some of the game’s greatest players hone their craft in Las Vegas.

But making the Pro Bowl, and playing in it, means you missed out on the Super Bowl. If San Francisco and its league-high nine selections make it to Allegiant Stadium in February, none of them will play in the game, they will instead be watching film and preparing to battle for a title.

It is a privilege Simmons, and his teammates want in the future, even if their own trip to Allegiant on Sunday already carries the weight of possibly giving the franchise its first winning season since 2016.

“I always say I can’t wait for the day I get selected and can’t go,” he said.

Surtain named team MVP

Demaryius Thomas was known for a lot of things, led his standout play, but also the humility behind it and the off-the-field impact he made for thousands.

His passing in 2021 sent shockwaves through the organization, and it was decided his name would live on with the team’s MVP award, as voted on by the team’s reporters who are part of the PFWA. Surtain has won it in consecutive years, and it is an honor he does not take lightly.

“To be recognized is such a huge honor, it means a lot,” Surtain said. “I think we were all deserving of it, my teammates in general were so great this year.

“I’ve always thought that awards like this (from your peers) mean the most.”

It adds to a trophy case in Surtain’s basement that he says is already getting full. In his first three years, the corner was named to the Pro Bowl twice and a First Team All-Pro last season and the team’s MVP in consecutive years.

He has started each of the Broncos’ 16 games so far and defended 11 passes — the franchise’s first to do so in each of his first three seasons — alongside his lone interception. His second Pro Bowl selection on Wednesday was also historic. He joined Willie Brown (1964-65) as the only two cornerbacks in franchise history to do so twice in their first three seasons.