Broncos cornerback Pat Surtain II would like to offer a challenge to opposing NFL quarterbacks.

“Pick your poison,’’ he said.

Surtain is the reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year and now he has the best supporting cast of his five-year pro career.

Quite simply, the Broncos are loaded in the secondary. Former Broncos tackle and team preseason television analyst Ryan Harris calls it the best one in the NFL.

The Broncos last season had some problems in the secondary, usually due to injuries. When starting cornerback Riley Moss missed three late-season games with a knee injury and then returned when he wasn’t fully healed, there were issues. And P.J. Locke had back problems during the season, and ended up being ranked No. 90 by Pro Football Focus out of 98 NFL safeties.

But Moss, entering his third NFL season and second as starter, is now fully healthy and looked very good in training camp and the preseason. And while Locke had offseason spinal fusion surgery and is doing much better, he has been replaced in the starting lineup by free-agent signee Talanoa Hufanga, a 2022 first-team All-Pro selection with San Francisco. He will team in the back end with Brandon Jones, rated the NFL’s No. 3 safety last season by Pro Football Focus.

The Broncos used their first-round draft pick in April to select Jahdae Barron, a versatile cornerback from Texas. While he might not beat out incumbent Ja’Quan McMillian to be the primary nickel back for when the season opens Sunday against Tennessee at Empower Field at Mile High, he at least will provide additional depth, including in dime situations.

“I believe that we have the talent to be,’’ Surtain said of being the NFL’s top secondary. “We’ve got talent from all areas, from the safeties to the corners to the nickel position. It’s no drop off, so when you’re able to accumulate a roster like that with so much depth, I mean, it’s like pick your poison because whatever we throw out there it’s going to be tough going for opposing offenses.”

Broncos wide receiver Troy Franklin knows all about that. He lines up against Denver’s defensive backs regularly in practice.

“It’s one of the best secondaries (in the NFL),’’ Franklin said. “We’re going against them every day, so when we go out there against somebody else, it’s pretty easy.”

The Broncos have been adding to their secondary each year this decade. Locke played in his first Denver game in 2020, Surtain in 2021, McMillian in 2022, Moss in 2023, Jones in 2024, and now Hufanga and Barron have joined the group.

“I’ve never been a part of a secondary this deep,’’ said Jones, who played his first four seasons with Miami before signing with the Broncos in March 2024.

With that in mind, comparisons are being made between the Broncos’ 2025 secondary to the 2015 “No Fly Zone” gang. That Denver team had tremendous depth in the secondary with the starters being Aqib Talib and Chris Harris Jr. at cornerback, T.J. Ward and Darian Stewart at safety and cornerback Bradley Roby and safety David Bruton also getting plenty of snaps.

“That’s not fair for me to compare teams and stuff like that, but I am looking forward to watching them (this season),” Gary Kubiak, head coach of the 2015 Broncos, said when asked by The Denver Gazette to compare the two secondaries.

Those Broncos won Super Bowl 50 that season. So perhaps it is premature to make a comparison.

“Well, right now they have the talent,’’ said Nick Ferguson, a Broncos defensive back from 2003-07 and a Denver broadcaster who followed the 2015 team closely. “But I’ll just say that we have to see them actually play together, and the one thing about that 2015 secondary is they made a lot of plays. In 2015, the ‘No Fly Zone,’ any time the team needed a play in the clutch, who came up with it? It was the secondary.”

It must be said, though, that the 2015 secondary did not have a reigning Defensive Player of the Year. And after being handed the trophy last February, Surtain has been talking about being even better this season.

“PS2 is a shutdown corner,’’ said Hall of Fame safety Steve Atwater, who played for the Broncos from 1989-98 and is now their fan engagement manager.

Now, Atwater is excited to see the Broncos having “two great additions” in Hufanga and Barron. He called Hufanga a “great leadership guy” and said Barron provides important depth because injuries can happen and the Broncos at times will use four cornerbacks at once.

“There are not too many teams in the NFL that have three good corners, so the Broncos now, when you throw Ja’Quan and Jahdae in there, you got four,’’ Ferguson said.

Throw in the Broncos’ versatile safeties and foes indeed will have to pick their poison.

***

2015 Broncos ‘D’ vs. 2024 Broncos ‘D’

Sacks

2015: 52 (No. 1)

2024: 63 (No. 1)

Interceptions:

2015: 14 (No. 13)

2024: 15 (No. 9)

Turnovers forced:

2015: 27 (No. 7)

2024: 23 (No. 8)

Points allowed per game:

2015: 18.5 (No. 4)

2024: 18.3 (No. 3)

Yards allowed per game:

2015: 283.1 (No. 1)

2024: 317.1 (No. 7)

—Paul Klee, The Denver Gazette