When the Broncos lined up to face the Bills in the Divisional round, the ghosts of last season were impossible to ignore. Just a year earlier, in the 2024 Wild Card round, the Broncos suffered a 7-31 blowout at the hands of Buffalo. For Patrick Surtain II, it was only his second career playoff appearance. So, as Denver took a commanding 17-3 lead into halftime, head coach Sean Payton had one message for his locker room.

“Keep the momentum going. Keep attacking. This game ain’t over. And he kept preaching, man, because he always used to have these games where he called it bat games,” Surtain revealed on the Games with Names podcast with former NFL wide receiver Julian Edelman.

The Broncos went on to win that game 33-30, before falling to the Patriots 7-10 in the AFC Championship Game. But what Surtain shared on the podcast offered a fascinating window into Payton’s motivational philosophy. The cornerback highlighted a system where the head coach categorizes games into two distinct types: bat games and oxygen tank games.

​“A game where you feel like it’s going to be ultra physical, ultra competitive, and we really got to finish all four quarters. He named his game a bat game, and we all get bats a couple days prior towards the game,” Surtain further explained. “He engraved the bats with the game, the date, the opponent, and stuff like that. So he named it the bat game.”

Payton enters his 19th year at the helm of a franchise with a 184-108 overall record. His coaching style has long blended sharp tactical instincts with an almost theatrical gift for motivation, traits that became legend during his years with the New Orleans Saints.

In the 2018 season, as the Saints were gearing up for their postseason run before their Divisional matchup against the Eagles, Payton walked into the team’s meeting room with four armed security guards. He wheeled in the Vince Lombardi Trophy alongside over $200,000 in cash. He told his players they could have it if they “win three f—g games.”

Payton’s methods have never fit a conventional mold, and the Bills’ divisional matchup was no exception. But Surtain clarified that this game did not get the bat treatment.

“This game, ironically, it wasn’t a bat. It was oxygen tanks,” Surtain further explained. “Because it’s going to take four quarters. He was like we’re going to need our oxygen tanks. They’re going to need theirs, so it’s going to be all four quarters.”​

True to form, the head coach followed through on the metaphor in the most literal way possible. Every player on the roster received their own personal engraved oxygen tank ahead of the game.

“Yeah, everyone got an oxygen tank. I mean, I don’t know how he did it, but he did it, man,” Surtain said.

The divisional win over the Bills at Empower Field at Mile High was Surtain II’s first home playoff victory. It also served as a reminder of just how far this Broncos team has come under Payton’s leadership, and how much the cornerback anchors Denver’s identity on defense heading into the new season.

Patrick Surtain II’s financial milestones prove he is Denver’s long-term cornerstone

Patrick Surtain II signed a four-year, $96 million contract extension with the Broncos in 2024. That deal runs through the 2029 season. This year, he earns a base salary of $7.632 million alongside a $10 million signing bonus. And as the new league year kicked off this March, Surtain hit another financial milestone tied to the deal.

On the fifth day of the new league year, Surtain’s $17 million base salary for the 2027 season became fully guaranteed. On that same date, $1.179 million of his 2028 base salary also converted to a full guarantee. Both triggers were built into the contract structure at the time of signing, and their activation now locks in over $18 million in future compensation for the two-time All-Pro.

Those guarantees reflect the value Denver places on a cornerback who has become one of the most dominant defensive players in the league. In five seasons, Surtain has recorded 279 tackles (221 solo), 12 interceptions, and five tackles for loss. He has earned four Pro Bowl selections, two All-Pro honors, and the 2024 NFL Defensive Player of the Year award, establishing himself as the cornerstone of Denver’s defense.

The Broncos came one win short of a Super Bowl appearance this postseason. But between Payton’s unconventional genius on the sideline and Surtain’s elite production on the back end, Denver heads into the new season as one of the most defensively dangerous teams in the AFC.