DENVER — All he does is make playoff quarterbacks pay. So why won’t the Broncos pay Ja’Quan McMillian?

“He’s checking everything, getting us in the right calls. A lot of stuff in our defense, we wouldn’t be able to do it without J-Mac,” Broncos cornerback Riley Moss told me after another woolly night at Empower Field led to a 17-14 overtime win over Seattle.

“And that’s the part that people don’t see about him and why he’s so valuable. Obviously, he’s an absolute baller, clutch, all of that. But they don’t see that he is the brains of the operation.”

Signing McMillian long-term would be the smartest money the Penners ever spent.

McMillian sent a red-hot Josh Allen home from the playoffs 10 months ago with a tumbling, never-say-die theft of Buffalo wideout Brandin Cooks. On Thursday, he ambushed Seahawks QB Sam Darnold, stepping in front of an underthrown lollipop in the general direction of Rashid Shaheed with 7:13 left in overtime, a takeaway that handed a flailing Broncos offense the ball back at the Seattle 43.

“(Darnold) was feeling the pressure. Then V.J. (defensive coordinator Vance Joseph) made a great call,” McMillian recalled later. “We were in a Cover-2 … and (Darnold) kind of just threw the ball up. He thought he had the hole (clear), and I just flashed across the receiver’s face and made a play on the ball.”

McMillian is the first Broncos cornerback to record a sack and a pick in the same game since … himself, which happened last Nov. 16 during a 22-19 victory over Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs. The last orange and blue corner to pull that off before J-Mac was Chris Harris in December 2014.

Now McMillian’s done it twice in less than 11 months.

“It’s not something that I go chase,” McMillian said, “but who doesn’t want to make that play, get an interception or force a turnover. So, it’s been a long (time) for me, I’ve been wanting to get a turnover. It finally came to me. (I) kind of let the plays come to me. Really glad I was able to make a play for my team.”

Pay the man. Now.

You won’t find a better slot corner than McMillian anywhere else in this league, never mind the division. And in an AFC loaded with generational QBs, a slot/nickel stopper isn’t some “luxury” position for the Broncos defense, either.

You want to know how the Broncos’ defense stays afloat without stars Pat Surtain II and Talanoa Hufanga? And with Moss nursing sore ribs? It’s because 29’s back there directing traffic as VJ’s “glue” guy.

“He’s checking everything. He’s getting us on the right calls,” Moss said. “Him and (linebacker) Alex (Singleton) are the quarterbacks. He’s the quarterback for our back end in terms of, ‘Are we playing zone? Are we going back to (man)?' ”

He’s an unassailable, indomitable pest, a 5-foot-10 dawg in the truest sense. No. 29 is a terrier who chews on pant legs, refusing to let go, as he did on that game-saving pick of Allen in the playoffs this past January. He’s instinctive, playing balls in the air the way a border collie plays a frisbee in the park. Thursday night offered up the typical, and almost perfect J-Mac stat line: five tackles, one sack, one interception, two passes broken up.

The air is rare up there. And 29, lunchpail to the last, shrugs it off as a blue-collar dude finishing what he’d started.

“Just doing my job,” McMillian said Thursday. “I don’t try to do anything extra, so I kind of let the plays come to me. Just being in the right spot at the right time.”

He’s there a lot.

With a cap hit of $5.77 million, he won’t get any cheaper.

He’s also one of the main reasons that the Broncos are 4-2 with the worst part of their schedule now in the rearview mirror, and the Seahawks (3-3) and Rams (2-3) waving from a muddy ditch.

If Bo Nix is this locker room’s spine, then McMillian is its soul. He’s as much these Broncos as the Broncos are him. Undrafted free agent. Undersized. Underscouted. Underappreciated.

Like his team, like his quarterback, McMillian can do a lot of things. Yet No. 29 doesn’t do one, singular thing exceptionally well.

Except win.

“(The ball) finds him,” Moss said. “He’s a playmaker … he was getting a little antsy, because it’s been a minute (since his last pick). He’s been in the right position, so he’s just had to wait for that thing to come to him …

“That’s something that you can’t teach guys. That’s in your DNA, and he’s got that in his DNA.”

“What is it that’s in his DNA?” someone asked.

“He’s just clutch,” the Broncos cornerback replied. “He’s got that clutch gene. He doesn’t get rattled. He’s a baller.”

Sure is. Nik Bonitto’s view of McMillian’s latest clutch gem was the same as usual: Awful. Worst seat in the house. No. 15 was spinning out of a double team, closing in on Darnold when he heard Empower Field roar like a tsunami behind him.

“I never actually see the interceptions, because I’m always rushing the passer,” the Broncos linebacker lamented. “All I hear is the crowd getting loud. So I’m like, ‘We did something right.’ So I’m just happy. It always is Ja’Quan. Every time, (he’s been) making these big plays. It’s not surprising.”

Not anymore.

Pay the man.

“That’s been the conversation,” Moss said with a sly grin, nodding at McMillian, just a few locker stalls down. “He’s so valuable.”

As a restricted free agent this past spring, J-Mac signed a one-year, $5.767 million deal. The Broncos could’ve extended him. Instead, they left the carrot dangling with a show-me contract.

Hasn’t he shown you enough?

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