Broncos Brass Address WR Courtland Sutton's Future in a Contract Year

INDIANAPOLIS, IN.—For the past several offseasons, Denver Broncos wide receiver Courtland Sutton has been floated in the NFL rumor mill as either a trade piece, a cap casualty candidate, or a contract malcontent. This time last year, Sutton was coming off of a 10-touchdown season and still had two years left on his contract.

After skipping the voluntary portion of the Broncos' 2024 offseason training program, Sutton returned for mandatory minicamp on the heels of GM George Paton adding some sweeteners to his contract. The veteran wideout would go on to make a huge impact in 2024, helping to bring rookie quarterback Bo Nix along as a reliable and consistent playmaker on the outside.

Even though Sutton has one year left on his deal, Broncos insiders have forecasted a potential dispute coming between player and team. With the Broncos in Indianapolis for the NFL Scouting Combine, head coach Sean Payton made it clear that Sutton is key to what the team is building around Nix.

"George and I were just talking about it," Payton said. "Those discussions will take place [between] George [and] Courtland's representatives. We felt like he had a real good season. He's important to what we're doing, so all of that will happen in time. I don't think now's the time."

Now might not be the time for the Broncos to fully negotiate an extension, but GM George Paton confirmed that he'll meet with Sutton's agents at the Combine and at least get a bead on what the veteran wideout is looking for financially.

"We'll meet with his agent here, like we always do—with all the agents," Paton said on Tuesday from the NFL Combine. "We meet with all of our team's agents."

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Paton emphasized even more forcefully his desire to keep Sutton in the Mile High City beyond 2025.

"Courtland's one of our guys," Paton said. "[A] team captain. I've said this for a couple of years in a row. We want him here. We'll have those discussions at the right time."

Translation: the Broncos plan to approach Sutton with an extension but the timetable for that remains up in the air and it's not imminent. It's not an immediate priority because it doesn't have to be. NFL teams, more often than not, don't take action on extensions or tag designations or cap casualties until a deadline demands it.

Sutton is under contract for 2025. He had a good excuse for skipping 2024's voluntary OTAs — recovering from an offseason procedure in Florida — but after he helped Nix reach such heights, another absence could be a bit harder to explain away, and could become an unnecessary distraction to the team.

Not only that, but now that Nix is the locked-in starter, Sutton absenting himself from OTAs would mean losing out on the opportunity to get even more reps under his belt with his new quarterback. But we don't know that Sutton has any intention of skipping this year's OTAs, and, again, he had a plausible excuse last year, which the Broncos backed him on publicly.

The Broncos will likely approach Sutton about an extension sometime in the late summer. We've seen Paton extend multiple Broncos in that window of the NFL calendar (Patrick Surtain II and Quinn Meinerz), as well as in-season extensions (Jonathon Cooper and Garett Bolles).

The Broncos will have a better idea of where Sutton's mind is at after meeting with his reps this week at the Combine. But if there's anything to take away from Tuesday's remarks at the podium, it's that Sutton is a priority to this team and he's "important" to Payton's blueprint, especially vis-à-vis Nix's development.

Sutton was Denver's most-targeted receiver in 2024 (135), hauling in a career-high 81 receptions for 1,081 yards and eight touchdowns.

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