Courtland Sutton is one of the Denver Broncos longest standing veterans on the roster outside of Garett Bolles. For the third time in his career, he’ll play a season opener against the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday for Week 1.
Denver Broncos wide receiver Courtland Sutton ready for challenge vs. Seahawks
After coming off of a ten-touchdown season just a year ago, 2024 is a new slate for Courtland Sutton, even though Denver’s season opener against the Seahawks will be familiar. Sutton opened up his NFL career in 2018 against the Seahawks, 2022 on the road for Monday Night Football, and will open the season again this Sunday in Seattle.
The veteran receiver is at the head of the table in terms of leadership, alongside rookie quarterback Bo Nix after the team voted him and others as team captains for this season.
This was his fourth year in a row being voted as a captain and is a sign of how much his teammates recognize his leadership.
“I told the guys at the dinner how grateful I was and how much of an honor it was,” Sutton said. “I don’t say that lightly. To be able to get voted on by your peers as a captain of a team and for guys to chose to the leader, it’s something that I treasure, and I hold dear to my heart. I appreciate the guys. They know that they’re going to get my best every day when we come out here for practice, meetings, the game or whatever it may be. I’m going to everything I can to make sure that I’m putting myself in a position to be successful and hopefully helping the guys be successful as well.”
Sunday will be a season of change for Sutton because it will be without veteran Tim Patrick on the roster, who is now with the Detroit Lions. The only veteran at receiver on the active roster besides Sutton is Josh Reynolds, who will likely step into that role Tim had offensively.
Sunday’s game will see Sutton go up against Devon Witherspoon, Riq Woolen, Julian Love, and Rayshawn Jenkins who lead the Seahawks secondary.
“They have a lot of talent over there on both sides of the ball,” Sutton said. “They had success last year. [They] obviously have a new staff that has come in and a new regime that’s there, but I think they have a lot of talent in a lot of spots on the field. Like I said, on both sides [of] the ball and even on the special teams’ side of the ball—or phase of the game I should say. It’s really going to be upon us to make sure we’re fine tuning our craft out here at practice, getting into the film and figuring out where these coordinators have come from and watching some of their film. [Also] analyzing some of the guys that have been there, some of the guys that are still there and analyzing their technique so that when we get out there on Sunday, we’re ready and firing on all cylinders.”
In-game adjustments will be crucial for Denver’s offense as they face Seattle’s new coordinators and schemes that don’t have a lot of NFL film on them just yet with the Seahawks personnel. Sutton will be a reliable security blanket option for Nix, who makes his first career start on Sunday.
“He comes to work every day with a demeanor of getting better and I think that’s one of the biggest things that you want out of your quarterback,” Sutton said of Nix. “He’s one of those guys that [has] the ‘C’ on his chest and he carries himself like that. He carries himself like a leader. He doesn’t look at any stage as it being too big for him. That’s all we can ask for out of our quarterback and out of our leader.”
Sunday could see the Denver Broncos have a captain-to-captain connection on offense, with Nix and Sutton hopefully meshing quite a bit against the Seahawks in what could be the first of many big plays to come between the pairing.
