The Broncos’ offseason trade for quarterback Russell Wilson paired with the hiring of Green Bay Packers offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett as the NFL team’s new head coach held the promise for an exciting season in Denver.

As such, the Broncos were scheduled into four prime-time slots in the first six weeks of the NFL’s 2022 season, including Monday night’s meeting with the Los Angeles Chargers.

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But while Denver’s prime-time appearances have been dramatic, they haven’t exactly been exciting.

The Broncos lost to Wilson’s former team, the Seattle Seahawks, 17-16 in the first Monday night game of the season, defeated the San Francisco 49ers 11-10 in Week 3′s Sunday night game and fell to the Indianapolis Colts 12-9 in overtime in Week 5′s Thursday night game.

The prime-time games didn’t produce the offensive output expected, but they have put on display the talent of Denver cornerback Patrick Surtain II. Pro Football Focus rated Surtain as the NFL’s best cornerback in coverage through the first five weeks of the season, and profootballreference.com stats show the former Alabama All-American has given up 159 yards in receptions in 2022 even though he spends most of each game matched against the opponent’s top wideout.

On Monday night, Surtain will have a matchup that has produced perhaps his best game in the NFL so far. When the Broncos defeated the Chargers 28-13 on Nov. 28 in his rookie season, Surtain intercepted Los Angeles quarterback Justin Herbert twice in the fourth quarter. Surtain’s first interception came in the end zone, and he returned the second 70 yards for a touchdown.

“That was one of my best games, for sure,” Surtain said. “That was a game that I prepared for a lot. Each and every week, I expect to make big plays, so that game sort of happened to be one of my biggest games. I just step in and just expect the best.”

Herbert enters Monday night’s game on pace for another 5,000-yard passing season, and he’s been intercepted twice in 200 throws.

“He’s a great quarterback,” Surtain said. “He’s got all the intangibles, can make every throw on the field. He could run, too — a very mobile quarterback — so he’s going to present some challenges to us. He’s got a lot of playmakers around him, surrounding him. It makes it easy for him, but he’s just a great quarterback all-around that’s capable of doing everything.”

Herbert might be without one of those playmakers again on Monday night. Wide receiver Keenan Allen hasn’t played since the season-opener because of a hamstring injury, and he’s listed as doubtful for Game 6 on the Chargers’ injury report.

But the Broncos will be without starting cornerback Ronald Darby, who tore an anterior cruciate ligament in Week 5 and will miss the rest of the season.

Denver could get a boost from the return of safety Justin Simmons. He’s been on injured reserve since sustaining a thigh injury in the season-opener, but Simmons has returned to practice and could be activated for Monday night’s game.

“It helps a lot having a guy like Justin back,” Surtain said. “Just having his presence back there in the secondary, him being vocal, commanding the defense in the back end. You know that it helps when you have him and Kareem (Jackson) back there, two veterans back there that have been in the league for a long time at a high level, been doing it at a high level, so it’d be great to have him back.”

Monday night’s game will be the Chargers’ third against AFC West rivals already this season. Los Angeles defeated the Las Vegas Raiders 24-19 on Sept. 11 and lost to the Kansas City Chiefs 27-24 on Sept. 15.

The Broncos have played one of their six division games so far, falling to the Raiders 32-23 on Oct. 2. Las Vegas is the only team to top 17 points against Denver this season.

“I can say the competitiveness of the whole division is rising,” Surtain said. “You could see from (Kansas City’s 30-29 victory over Las Vegas in the Week 5 Monday night game) that it was a highly competitive game. It was going both ways, a high-scoring game. It’s just going to come down to the wire in some games like this because the division is highly talented, highly stoked.”

The Broncos and Chargers square off at 7:15 p.m. CDT Monday at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. ESPN will televise the game.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.