Broncos wide receiver Courtland Sutton stepped to the podium Thursday following organized team activities with a clear message: don’t sleep on Denver’s tight end room, and don’t sleep on new play-caller Davis Webb.
Sutton, the veteran leader of Denver’s receiving corps, made it a point to publicly back a tight end group that has drawn outside criticism in recent seasons.
“I don’t like the bashing of our tight end room. I say that publicly,” Sutton said. “I think we have great tight ends. I think that they do their job really, really well. I think that they do what’s asked of them to a high level.”
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Last offseason, the Broncos added Evan Engram in hopes of solving the long-term issues at the position. But a 16-game season with fewer than 500 yards and only one score brought questions about the group right back up. So a lot of snaps went back to Adam Trautman and Lucas Krull, and Sutton backed the entire trio.
“They have looked really, really good so far through OTAs,” Sutton said. “Trout, Ev, Lucas — getting those guys going is really big. I think that when every piece of our offense is able to contribute to the game, that’s where our offense is going to grow.”
Sutton also offered a glowing endorsement of Webb, who is preparing to take on play-calling responsibilities as he was elevated to offensive coordinator this offseason after spending the past three seasons learning under head coach Sean Payton.
“The dude is a mad scientist when it comes to the offensive game,” Sutton said. “He spent the past three years now being able to learn the game under Coach Payton, who we all know is an offensive genius.”
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Like Payton, Webb got a few snaps as a quarterback in the NFL. Although Webb’s time in the league was just several seasons ago, making his experience a bit more relatable.
“To be able to have that amount of time to be able to learn the game from someone as talented and as special as Payton, it’s ultimately allowed him to be able to master this offense,” Sutton said. “It’s a combination of things that he’s learned from Coach Payton and things that he’s liked and seen from his own experience of playing and coaching in this league.”
Sutton is going into his ninth year in the league, and he said there’s no question Webb is ready for his new gig.
“I know that he’s ready. There’s not a thought behind it,” Sutton said. “Being able to listen to the way he coaches and the way that he’s teaching the terminology to us on the field and in the classroom has been amazing. I’m looking forward to continuing to pick his offensive brain.”
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With the continued growth of Denver’s skill positions — including the return of running back J.K. Dobbins, second-year back R.J. Harvey and the addition of Jaylen Waddle — Sutton was asked if he’d be willing to sacrifice targets this season.
“I want to win games at the end of the day,” Sutton said. “I think last year we saw what it would take for a selfless offense to be able to get to where we want to get to. I don’t think that we have any individual personalities in our offense that are saying, ‘Hey, I need this, I need that.'”
Sutton said he’s getting his first up-close look at Waddle, who the Broncos acquired this offseason.
“He’s a special dude. There are a lot of things that he has — the qualities that he does — that are very unique to himself,” Sutton said. “I say that in a very specific way because he has some qualities that only he can do.”
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Sutton is coming off one of the best seasons of his career, and he isn’t worried about his own production.
“The targets will come,” he said. “I always say the ball is going to find you no matter what. You just got to go out there and do your job.”
Waddle threw the love right back to Sutton, about making life easy for the other.
“Courtland is an elite playmaker, so anytime you have a playmaker on the other side of you, it just makes it easy,” Waddle said. “It’s someone that the defense has to be looking for, and vice versa.”
Sutton said the presence of another perimeter threat in Waddle will make life difficult for opposing defenses, particularly with Denver’s run game forcing safeties to commit to the box.
“It’s really hard to be able to sit back and say we’re going to use our safeties to take away myself and him, and then the rest of the receivers in our room, because we have such a tremendous run game,” Sutton said.
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