'He's Attacking it': Fangio Updates Courtland Sutton's Rehab Progress From Torn ACL
Similar to Von Miller, on the doorstep of the season-opener, Pro Bowl wideout Courtland Sutton suffered a shoulder injury after he fell funny doing a receiving drill on air. It caused him to miss Week 1 vs. Tennessee.
Sutton's availability for Week 2 was touch-and-go but he ultimately suited up. Drew Lock would go down not far into the first quarter with a shoulder injury that would keep him off the field until Week 6 and while Sutton played 31 snaps, he would leave the loss at Pittsburgh with an ACL tear after hauling in three passes for 66 yards.
In one fell swoop, the Broncos lost their No. 1 quarterback and No. 1 wide receiver, little more than a week after losing their No. 1 edge rusher. With the 2020 campaign coming to a close on Sunday for Denver, head coach Vic Fangio provided an update on Sutton's rehab.
“Courtland's doing good," Fangio said on Friday. "I've talked to him a few times here recently. He came up to see me one day, he's where he should be at in this phase of his recovery. He's doing very, very well, and his attitude is great. He's attacking it.”
Sutton 'attacks' everything he does which is how he went from playing safety to starring at small-school Southern Methodist University to hearing his name called in the second round of the 2018 NFL draft. One year later, that mindset and work ethic landed him in the Pro Bowl on the heels of a 1,000-yard receiving season catching passes from three different quarterbacks.
Sutton's third year ended before it could even start thanks to the injury bug. But it's good to hear that his recovery and rehab is going well.
2021 will be a contract year for Sutton. That, combined with missing this season, is sure to see a highly motivated and intense Sutton when he finally takes the field again next fall.
The Broncos have missed him this year badly. Lock's ups and downs have been exacerbated by the absence of his trusty No. 1 target.
While Lock has fed the rock to rookie first-rounder Jerry Jeudy over and over again, the chemistry hasn't been there and the receiver has suffered from a bad case of the 'dropsies'. One collateral blessing of Sutton's absence has been the emergence of Tim Patrick, who's gone on to 49 receptions on 75 targets for 696 yards and a team-leading six receiving touchdowns.
Patrick will be a restricted free agent in the spring and the Broncos are sure to tender him. Once Sutton gets healthy, as well as rookie second-rounder KJ Hamler, the Broncos' receiving corps could be a force to be reckoned with.
“I feel like we could be unstoppable," Patrick said on Friday. "We showed it this year and we were missing our biggest part of our receiving core [Sutton]. Just bringing Courtland back, I don't think there's no such thing as double-teaming us because I feel like we can all break out of any game and teams are going to have to play us straight up and it's going to be very, very, very hard to stop us.”
With a final homestand against the Las Vegas Raiders, the Broncos will finish out the year vs. the AFC West and head into the offseason with a sub-.500 record for the fourth-straight year. If the Broncos can get all their horses on the field at the same time, and Lock takes even a modest step forward in Year 3 (assuming he's The Guy), this offense has the chance to be a darkhorse powerhouse.
Follow Chad on Twitter @ChadNJensen and @MileHighHuddle.
