The Denver Broncos gutted out another ugly win this week. This time, the victory came on the biggest primetime stage, against a top NFC contender — The San Francisco 49ers.

Which Broncos helped carry the team to victory, and who is responsible for the team nearly falling short? Let’s take a look, in this latest edition of the Denver Broncos Stock Exchange.

Whose stock is rising for the Denver Broncos?

Denver Broncos cornerback Pat Surtain II (2) celebrates with linebacker Bradley Chubb (55) after a play in the first quarter against the San Francisco 49ers at Empower Field at Mile High.

Sep 25, 2022; Denver, Colorado, USA; Denver Broncos cornerback Pat Surtain II (2) celebrates with linebacker Bradley Chubb (55) after a play in the first quarter against the San Francisco 49ers at Empower Field at Mile High. Mandatory Credit: Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports

Josey Jewell

It feels like every offseason, Broncos scribes from around the land will send out tweets asking you, the fans, ‘who is the most underrated member of the Denver Broncos?’ And every year, Tim Patrick is a near-unanimous choice.

Well — at least from the lens of who is underrated the most by Broncos Country — the answer isn’t Patrick, and it hasn’t been for quite some time.

Patrick has received his flowers, and every Broncos fan is pining to add his talents to the offense right now.

Broncos Country’s most underrated member of the team is Josey Jewell.

Over the last eight games of 2020 and his limited playing time in 2021, Jewell was a top-notch inside-backer and elite run-defender.

Is he making DeVondre-Campbell-plays at the catch point, or locking down Deebo Samuel in space? No, he’s not, as was on display even this week, but that’s ok. You don’t need to be perfect to be a terrific player, and ‘terrific’ beautifully describes Jewell’s debut performance this season.

Also, while we’re on the point, forcing Jewell into a position where he has to cover Deebo Samuel is a credit to Kyle Shanahan’s play design. It’s not a knock against Jewell. How many inside linebackers are covering Samuel in space?

He was a valuable addition to the team’s run defense all night long (tallying 50% more tackles than the team’s second-leading tackler), as was highlighted on a massive run stuff in the backfield, which opened San Francisco’s fourth drive.

Even more impressive though, that run stuff was just the cherry-on-top. He had just ended the 49ers’ last offensive possession with a sack up the gut, courtesy of an eye-raising bull rush — against Kyle Juszcyzk for bonus points — and Bradley Chubb creating the pressure.

Jewell also recovered a 49er fumble near midfield, which normally should result in points from the offense.

Don’t hate Jewell for the one thing he is not. Love him for the many things he is.

Nathaniel Hackett

Now, it wasn’t a perfect game, but no one expects the pitcher with a 21.00 ERA to come in and pitch a perfect game. If that pitcher comes in and gives you four run-free innings, even with a couple of doubles sprinkled in, it’s a considerable improvement.

That’s what we saw from Hackett on Sunday Night Football.

Was calling an ’empty’ look on 3rd-and-long, against San Francisco, in field goal range, when all they really had to do was avoid a sack, a display of good coaching? No. But at least it wasn’t an extremely visible gaffe that every single viewer in America picked up on.

Let’s all own the fact that the bar was painfully low here. That said, Hackett cleared it.

Going 0-for-2 on challenges dings that some, but both seemed worthwhile, at least from the press box.

Not only did he avoid the obvious coaching gaffes, but the team dramatically improved on the penalties front, despite playing with Shawn Hochuli’s crew — who was the NFL’s second-most flag-happy officiating crew entering the week. The Broncos went from averaging 12.5 penalties for 103 yards over their first two games to being penalized just five times for 30 yards.

Patrick Surtain II

Over the 23 times Jimmy Garoppolo targeted someone on the Denver Broncos defense not named Patrick Surtain II, he averaged 9.2 yards per attempt while completing 78.3% of his passes. Over the six times Garoppolo targeted Surtain, he averaged 0.0 yards per attempt and completed zero percent of his passes.

That’s the difference between being the most efficient quarterback in the entire NFL, and having the same yards per attempt as the average drunk 49er fan that attended the game last night.

Despite playing through a wounded shoulder and facing one of the league’s most deadly pass-catching triplets — Deebo Samuel, George Kittle, and Brandon Aiyuk — Surtain was a game-changing defensive force.

While media descended upon Surtain after the game like a swarm of locusts, eager for a postgame interview, other members of the Broncos defense also gathered around the corner, shouting praise and the fact the 49ers avoided targeting Surtain after the first quarter, trying to make sure the nearby microphones could pick them up.

As Justin Simmons said during that media stampede after the victory last night, “Surtain is the greatest.”

Mike Purcell

All last week, much was made about D.J. Jones and K’Waun Williams playing in revenge games against their former team, the San Francisco 49ers, but in hindsight, it’s clear more print space should’ve been spent hyping up the Mike Purcell revenge game.

Purcell played his best game of the season and came up big in the run game, tallying five total tackles, tied for third-most on the team.

The biggest play for Purcell, though, came on a rush up the middle that saw him push Jimmy Garoppolo out the back of the endzone for a pivotal safety.

Without those two points, the Broncos might have lost this game, as Melvin Gordon’s late touchdown would have set up a game-tying extra point, as opposed to being the go-ahead score.

Bringing added importance to Purcell’s performance is the fact that the Denver Broncos have been clamoring for a third defensive lineman to step up, with DeShawn Williams struggling so far this season.

Denver Broncos special teams

The star of the show here was Corliss Waitman, but you have to give credit to the kick coverage team as well.

The strong night for the special teams started with Brandon McManus pinning Ray-Ray McCloud in the corner of the field, Aaron Patrick nearly toppling him, and Justin Strnad finishing the tackle, resulting in the 49ers starting at their own 10-yard line.

Broncos Country was then treated to a large sample size of Waitman and the punt team, who pinned the 49ers inside their own 25 on eight of his 10 punts (he was punting from his own 21- and three-yard lines on the punts that failed to reach that mark), and inside their own 15 on five of those 10 punts. Considering the defense only forced one three-and-out this game (though yes, they were outstanding), the punt team deserves some credit for consistently giving Jimmy Garoppolo and Co. a long field to work against.

Whose stock is falling for the Denver Broncos?

Denver Broncos quarterback Russell Wilson (3) recovers a fumble ahead of San Francisco 49ers defensive end Kerry Hyder Jr. (92) and defensive tackle Kevin Givens (90) and safety Tashaun Gipson Sr. (31) in the third quarter at Empower Field at Mile High.

Sep 25, 2022; Denver, Colorado, USA; Denver Broncos quarterback Russell Wilson (3) recovers a fumble ahead of San Francisco 49ers defensive end Kerry Hyder Jr. (92) and defensive tackle Kevin Givens (90) and safety Tashaun Gipson Sr. (31) in the third quarter at Empower Field at Mile High. Mandatory Credit: Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports

Russell Wilson

Things might’ve ended marvelously, but up until that point, it was pretty ugly and that shouldn’t be easily forgotten.

Through 12 quarters, the Denver Broncos have generated nine fewer points than they did through the final 12 quarters of last season. At that point, last season’s offense, in case you’ve forgotten, was led by Seahawks backup quarterback Drew Lock and out-of-the-NFL offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur.

A healthy share of that blame falls on Wilson just not being special.

Again, the final drive erased a lot of his blemishes, and you saw glimpses of what he could be. Those glimpses were also there as the first half came to a close. However, for the overwhelming majority of the past two games, Wilson has been a below-average NFL quarterback.

Of course, offensive production isn’t solely the responsibility of the quarterback, but Denver punted the ball 10 times last night and went three-and-out nine times. That’s unacceptable for an offense captained by a quarterback set to make a quarter of a billion dollars.

Now, it should be noted that Aaron Rodgers was so bad in his first season under Hackett, that the Green Bay Packers were convinced the end was nigh and drafted Jordan Love in the first round. Rodgers then won two consecutive MVP awards.

So, don’t throw the towel in yet, but we’d be lying if we said things were looking good there.

Denver Broncos’ offensive line

One would wish they could simply say, ‘Cam Fleming and Graham Glasgow are the problem, and this line will be completely fixed once Billy Turner and Quinn Meinerz are re-installed,” but that just isn’t the case.

Now, yes, Fleming was a disaster on Sunday Night Football and Glasgow has had his fair share of ugly moments, but starters were getting whooped too. The most expensive member of Denver’s offensive line, Garett Bolles, was routinely getting beat Sunday night and was even penalized for holding, while Dalton Risner was Denver’s biggest problem at guard.

There are a good number of reasons to reserve judgment on the offensive line.

Wilson was holding the ball far too long on a number of his dropbacks, San Francisco being a difficult matchup for everyone they face, how the line has performed in previous games, and the aforementioned injuries, all save the line from some blame, but their stock still deserves to drop after this showing.