Courtland

Sutton

Sutton has now gone five games without notching more than five catches or 67 yards, clearly seeing a dip in volume and production with the team in the midst of a nine-game winning streak. He continues to be emphasized in the red zone, evidenced by his fifth touchdown grab of the season, but fantasy managers continue to be left wanting more from their early-round selection this offseason. He’ll have another solid opportunity to crack into higher yardage totals when the Broncos face the Raiders in Week 14.

He had an absolutely essential catch in this game of a low Bo Nix throw on third-and-long at the two-minute warning to keep the Broncos offense on the field. It’s not like Courtland Sutton has been a major fantasy football problem this year. The targets are fine. He’s scored in four-of-11 games. He’s gone over 80 yards five times. But it feels like the Sutton/Troy Franklin alliance has shifted sharply towards Franklin in the last four games. Sutton hasn’t cracked 67 yards since Week 7 and has just one touchdown to show for it. He’ll be on the WR3 line coming out of Denver’s Week 12 bye, but this has felt a little more tenuous than you’d hope lately as Denver has spread the ball around plenty and featured Franklin.

Sutton was able to salvage last week’s disappointing effort with a touchdown. This week it’s just disappointment. The wideout was an afterthought in the passing game for much of the contest, and the Raiders clearly were more comfortable letting Troy Franklin ‘beat’ them (5/40/1). The wideout now has just 54 yards over his last two games, and while he remains on the WR2 radar, there’s risk that comes with potential reward for Week 11 against the Chiefs.

Sutton scored against Derek Stingley in what looked to be a play where Stingley expected safety help but didn’t get it. If you’re going to catch one ball, make it a 30-yard touchdown. Weirdly seeing his targets decline of late — he now has fewer than Troy Franklin on the season despite being a much better player — Sutton will remain a fantasy WR2 in Week 10 against the Raiders.

There was a two-play stretch in Denver’s final field goal drive where Sutton caught a touchdown only to watch it get moved back for a (valid) offensive pass interference call on Adam Trautman, then watched another would-be touchdown thud off his chest plate. A tough scene for fantasy managers given all the scoring that happened in this game — and the clank left Bo Nix grabbing his helmet with the cobra of disbelief — but Sutton will remain on the WR2 line against the Texans in Week 9.

Sutton was once again Bo Nix’s go-to guy in high-leverage situations, including in the game’s final drive, when Nix hit Sutton for a long gain to put the Broncos in field goal position. Sunday marked a nice bounce back game for Sutton after his one-catch performance in Week 7 against the Jets. Dominating air yards in the Broncos offense, Sutton will profile as an elite fantasy play next week against a Dallas secondary that has struggled throughout the season. He has at least 80 yards in three of his past four outings.

The Broncos’ offense struggled to get much going outside of check-downs versus the Jets. Sutton, in turn, was scarcely involved. He finished fourth on the team in targets and logged a measly 10 percent target share. It goes down as his second one-catch game of the season. He had one such game all of last year. Denver’s offense has yet to find its footing this year, and Sutton’s box scores have taken a hit as a result. He should, however, get a good shot at a rebound game versus the Giants’ defense next week.

Sutton’s catches and targets were both new season highs after he entered the break with just 2/11. He went to work on Quinyon Mitchell in the second half, helping the Broncos rally from a 17-3 deficit for a 21-17 victory. Having gone at least 5/60 in 4-of-5 games so far this season, Sutton has established a high floor and reasonable ceiling. He’s a strong WR2 ahead of a Week 6 matchup with the Jets’ struggling defense in London.

Sutton’s early-game successes allowed the Broncos to cruise to an easy victory in the second half. The Broncos’ No. 1 wide receiver caught 5-of-5 targets for 81 yards and a touchdown in the first half. He bullied Bengals’ would-be tacklers from the jump, looking fluid and assertive with the ball in his hands. His 8.8 yards after the catch average is a season-high. On his 20-yard score, he got open on a post route in the Bengals’ red zone, leaping to catch the pass from the four-yard line and coming down in the end zone. Sutton is a WR2 against the Eagles in Week 5.

Sutton could have had a much bigger day if Bo Nix had not narrowly overthrown him on a fourth quarter deep ball that might have gone for a 60-yard score. Sutton accounted for more than half of Denver’s air yards on the day, easily leading all Broncos pass catchers with eight looks from Nix. It was a nice change from the past couple weeks, when Nix checked down at a league-high rate and left Sutton — a downfield threat — out in the cold fantasy-wise. With more aggressive passing from Nix, Sutton could be a solid WR2 option in Week 4 against a poor Bengals defense.