Broncos ‘Hoping’ an Offensive Starter Returns in Week 16

Getty Denver Broncos WR Courtland Sutton running with the ball against the Carolina Panthers.

After missing the last two games, Denver Broncos wide receiver Courtland Sutton will have a chance to return this week against the Los Angeles Rams on Christmas day.

“We are definitely hoping for Courtland (to return this week),” head coach Nathaniel Hackett said. “It’s a hamstring, so we want to be smart with it. We’ve been dealing with these quite a bit this year, so we don’t want anything to get reaggravated, but he’s been working really hard. Our training staff has done a great job to make him potentially available for this week.”

So far in 2022, Sutton leads the Broncos in catches (52) and yards (688) through 15 weeks.

Sutton suffered a hamstring injury in Denver’s Week 13 matchup against the Baltimore Ravens. The injury forced Sutton to leave the game early as the Broncos lost 10-9.

In the 12 games that Sutton has appeared in, the former second-round pick has only found the endzone once and has only totaled up just one 100-yard game this year.

Time to Get Courtland Sutton More Involved

While the Broncos own the worst offense in the NFL, the Broncos understand that they need their playmakers to help out quarterback Russell Wilson and that starts with getting wide receiver Courtland Sutton more involved.

“He definitely gets a lot of attention. He’s a guy that everybody that we’re gonna face knows that we want to try and get him involved as much as we can throughout the entire game,” Hackett said when talking about Sutton. “We have to try to be as creative as we possibly can to try and get him (Sutton) the ball.

Sutton is on pace to barely surpass 1,000 receiving yards for the second time in his career, but he also needs to find the end zone for the struggling Denver offense.

With the Rams giving up 228.6 yards per game in the air, which ranks 22nd in the NFL, Wilson and the Broncos might be able to finally break out and have another solid offensive performance.

With Jerry Jeudy having 15 catches for 149 yards and 3 touchdowns over the last two games, the Rams could be forced to put a little more attention on him and let Sutton go up against their No. 2 cornerback.

Sutton has faced the Rams once in his career and caught 3 passes on 4 targets for 53 yards. The former SMU wideout didn’t find the end zone that game as the Broncos fell short, 19-16.

Courtland Sutton Has Struggled Since Signing Extension

On November 22, 2021, Sutton and the Broncos agreed on a four-year contract extension worth $60.8 million with $34.9 million guaranteed.

Before that extension, Sutton played well as one of the better wide receivers in the game. In the 43 games before signing his monster deal, Sutton caught 160 passes for 2,499 yards and 12 touchdowns.

Since signing his new deal, Sutton has played in 19 games and only has 67 receptions for 847 yards and just 1 touchdown catch.

Dealing with multiple quarterbacks over his career, the expectation was that Sutton would break out this season and have his second 1,000-yard season with Wilson slinging the rock.

So far this season, Sutton has continued to struggle, tying a career-high 7 dropped passes in 12 games.