![\"Pat](\"https:\/\/news2.watchtowatch.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/GettyImages-2243468300-e1761523408933-1-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Denver Broncos\u00a0have been without All-Pro cornerback\u00a0Pat Surtain II\u00a0since Week 8, but the star defender insists he\u2019s making rapid progress.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Surtain suffered a pectoral strain during Denver\u2019s big win over the\u00a0Dallas Cowboys\u00a0in Week 8.,\u00a0<\/p>\n
As The SportsRush noted, While the injury forced him to miss two straight games, he says his body is responding in a great way.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt makes me anxious to go back out there,\u201d Surtain told Closed on Sundays.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause now you can see how many more plays I can make\u2026 them boys eating up front. I feel like Wolverine, my dog.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like Wolverine, my dog,\u201d Surtain said. \u201cEverything\u2019s going on schedule. Your boy moving his arm a little bit now.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI can do a push-up. My strength is coming back. We progressing in small increments.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Broncos\u2019 defense has dominated in his absence, but that dominance has only heightened Surtain\u2019s urge to rejoin the lineup.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt makes me anxious to go back out there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause now you can see how many more plays I can make. How aggressive I can be, because them boys eating up front.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite his optimism, Surtain remained a DNP on Denver\u2019s Wednesday injury report and is still trending toward another missed game in Week 11.<\/p>\n
Surtain\u2019s pectoral strain initially sparked concern that he might have needed to go on injured reserve, which would have guaranteed a minimum four-game absence.\u00a0<\/p>\n
ESPN\u2019s Adam Schefter reported early that IR was on the table, but Denver ultimately kept Surtain off the list.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This is a strong indication the injury was likely a low-grade strain and that the team believed he could return within a month.<\/p>\n
So far, that timeline has held.<\/p>\n
Surtain has missed Weeks 9 and 10, and while he continues to sit out practice, the cornerback says the healing process is \u201cright on schedule.\u201d<\/p>\n
His ability to regain movement, push-up strength, and pain-free arm usage all point toward a realistic return after the bye in Week 13.\u00a0<\/p>\n
His Week 11 status remains doubtful.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Surtain suffered the injury on October 26, meaning the early end of his projected 4-6 week timetable would fall just after Denver\u2019s matchup with the\u00a0Chiefs\u00a0on Sunday.<\/p>\n
He has not practiced since being sidelined, and the coaching staff has made clear he will need multiple sessions before retaking the field.<\/p>\n
Even without their reigning Defensive Player of the Year, Denver\u2019s defense has been nothing short of dominant.<\/p>\n
Over the two-game stretch Surtain has missed, the Broncos have allowed the fewest points in the\u00a0NFL, and rank second in sacks and yards allowed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Their ferocious pass rush has been the story of the season, as Denver already has 46 sacks through 10 games.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They are on pace to break the single-season NFL record of 72 set by the 1984\u00a0Bears.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Surtain has taken notice of the historic pace and emphasized early in the year that Denver\u2019s defense had the potential to be one of the all-time greats.<\/p>\n
We could be mentioned among the greats\u2026 the 2000\u00a0Ravens, the Legion of Boom,\u201d he said. \u201cI said that with conviction.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
In Surtain\u2019s absence, the cornerback unit has held strong.\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, no corner in the NFL erases top receivers the way Surtain does.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As good as this defense has been without Surtain, it came against inferior offensive competition in the Texans and\u00a0Raiders.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This weekend will signal their first true offensive test against the Chiefs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
With key AFC matchups ahead and playoff positioning at stake, Denver is hopeful its Wolverine-like superstar will be back soon.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When he returns, the NFL\u2019s hottest defense gets even scarier.<\/p>\n
The Pittsburgh Penguins have had many a pleasant surprise over their first 17 games. They\u2019ve gotten a lot of life out of mid-level free agent signings like Justin Brazeau, Anthony Mantha and Parker Wotherspoon. Arturs Silovs has looked the part of an NHL goalie. Tristan Jarry and even Ryan Graves have started upon redemption journeys, no matter how modest or long-lasting they might be. Evgeni Malkin has seemingly turned back the hands of time. Erik Karlsson is playing like he has something to prove. Sidney Crosby is, well, you can\u2019t be too surprised that he\u2019s still the best player on the ice most nights but at 38 it\u2019s still something to see.<\/p>\n
The progression of Ben Kindel, however, is arguably their finest and most pleasant surprise of all so far. No one had him even close to the NHL radar in 2025-26 (though, hey, at least we were able to\u00a0raise the possibility of the unexpected)<\/p>\n
Those seven other forwards who fit in the category are Zach Benson, Cole Sillinger, Ryan O\u2019Reilly, Patrice Bergeron, Dustin Brown, Justin Williams and Sykora. Of those, only the first two have had their rookie seasons in the last 15 years.<\/p>\n
Not only is Kindel making it, he\u2019s excelling. It\u2019s early, small sample, blah blah but Kindel has stepped right in and looked the part of a player who can drive his own line and now has stepped up to the first line to play on the wing. Kindel\u2019s two-way play was touted coming out of the WHL just as much as his ability to produce points and that has been the case thus far in his first 15 NHL games.<\/p>\n
Of the others, here are some stat lines for their rookie years:<\/p>\n
These players, of course, were far from finished products even though it is rare to even show enough to stick in the NHL from this age without being a top-10 draft pick. One commonality amongst these players seems to be a defensive conscious, Beregron won six Selke trophies in his career, O\u2019Reilly has won the award once. Brown and Sykora picked up Selke votes in their careers and were known as reliable players off the puck, as was Williams. It wouldn\u2019t be a surprise if Kindel joins them to at least find his name on Selke ballots in the future if he eventually grows into a penalty killing center as his career blossoms. That makes sense on the surface level, if a young player is going to make it right off the bat they have to instantly create some trust away from the puck and demonstrate a good compete and detail level to their game beyond their young age.<\/p>\n
As the stats above show, there\u2019s a lot more offensive upside for the players to find. Most of the rookies ended up in the 25-30ish point range as draft+1 NHLers and almost all of them eventually found their game grow into being 60+ players (including Benson, who got to 60 in his second season). That hasn\u2019t always been the case \u2014 Sillinger has no more than 33 points over his four NHL seasons and may never reach the levels that just about everyone else did but the track record there is fairly strong and shows a clear path about a promising future is ahead for young Kindel.<\/p>\n
Of course, one doesn\u2019t need this article to realize all of that, the eye test is showing in spades the impressiveness in Kindel\u2019s game. It was only a month ago when the Pens\u2019 coaches\u00a0had a plan\u00a0to cycle Kindel out as a healthy scratch at times to keep him from getting overloaded. Plans can change, Kindel has played the last eight games in a row and more all the time (scoring five points and averaging 16:30 per game while playing more minutes each game in the last four games than he played in all of his first 11). The scratches have gone away because there hasn\u2019t been a need lately to give him time off.<\/p>\n
Kindel has been able to handle what the Pens have asked, whether that\u2019s been centering his own line or now moving up to play wing with Crosby. For someone drafted outside of the top-10 and won\u2019t turn 19 until after the regular season ends that could be the biggest and best surprise of them all this season in Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The\u00a0Denver Broncos\u00a0have been without All-Pro cornerback\u00a0Pat Surtain II\u00a0since Week 8, but the star defender insists he\u2019s making rapid progress.\u00a0 Surtain suffered a pectoral strain during Denver\u2019s big win over the\u00a0Dallas Cowboys\u00a0in Week…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8285,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t