Denver Broncos: Revisiting Draft Choice Courtland Sutton

As the regular season approaches, we wanted to take an individual look at each of the Denver Broncos 2017 Draft Choices and how they’ve performed in camp.

With the 40th pick in the 2018 NFL Draft, the Denver Broncos selected SMU receiver Courtland Sutton. How has Sutton performed in preseason and camp?

Courtland has exceeded expectations and in keeping with the theme of the draft, Denver GM John Elway feels that the Broncos got great value from a second round pick that they had rated as a first-round prospect.

The knock on Sutton coming into camp was that while he was big, strong and able to go up and catch balls at their peak (very much like Demaryius Thomas) he didn’t seperate or have breakaway speed.

Within the first few days of camp, Courtland was able to squash the ideas that he wouldn’t be a featured wideout.  When he was drafted, we envisioned him as a slot/possession receiver but he’s shown enough that he’s risen to second on the depth chart, behind Thomas.

Sutton will be critical to an offense looking to re-establish a wide-receiver tradition that stretches back to ring-of-famer Rick Upchurch.  While it’s understood that standout receivers are easier to come by than other positions, it’s also true that the position has quite a bit of volatility with injury being a major factor.

With depth imperative to NFL teams, it’s quite the relief to have picked up what’s shaping up to be DT’s eventual replacement in the draft.  With the emergence of several players in the preseason, it’s hard to label one player the “surprise of the draft” but Sutton’s push is going to create difficult decisions as it will be hard to keep him off the field.

This young group of wideouts, led by Sutton could carry Denver into the future, they’ve shown compatibility with both Case Keenum and Chad Kelly (who looks to be the Denver backup, barring late moves).  With DaeSean Hamilton and Tim Patrick joining Sutton, Denver is in good shape for the future.