In the summer, Chad Morris came to watch some old friends dance in Denver.
He saw Bo Nix and Courtland Sutton maneuver on the grass at the Broncos’ facility during organized team activities (OTAs) in June. He saw a quarterback and receiver who could feel where the other was. This was the training ground for the second year of the Nix-Sutton partnership, the two growing a shared awareness of space and timing. A tango. A rumba. Swaying to each other’s movements.
Morris knew them both from his days as a college coach. Sutton was Morris’ captain when Morris was rebuilding at Southern Methodist University, from 2015-17 . Nix was Morris’ quarterback when he was an offensive coordinator at Auburn in 2020 , still the most competitive player he’s ever coached. And Morris knew, from just Day 1 at OTAs, that Sutton trusted Nix. And Nix trusted Sutton.
After practice, the three grabbed lunch at the team cafeteria at Dove Valley. At that moment, Sutton’s future in Denver was still unclear, engrossed in extension negotiations after a career-best 81 catches in 2024 . So Morris asked Nix, at that table, about Sutton’s contract.
“Look,” Nix said, as Morris recalled. “We’ve got to get this guy signed. This is my guy.”
Sutton, Nix told Morris, was so much of Denver’s pulse. And so much of its heartbeat.
“I know Bo,” Morris repeated, Nix’s quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator at Auburn. “I know Bo. And I know Bo was sharing that with the management and the ownership of the Denver Broncos. I know that for a fact.”
Less than two months later, on July 28, Sutton came bounding out for practice as his representation finalized the particulars of a four-year, $92 million extension with Denver brass.
The Broncos signed the player. Really, though, they signed the pillar.
Sutton has played in 110 of a possible 117 games (excluding a torn ACL in 2020) in his years in Denver . He now ranks sixth all-time in Broncos history in receiving yards, while playing for 11 different starting quarterbacks in eight seasons . He’s had five offensive coordinators and five head coaches. And he has never once requested a trade in those eight seasons, sources close to Sutton told The Denver Post.
Sutton’s presence — from Vic Fangio to Sean Payton, from Pat Bowlen to the Penners — sticks in the minds of those who’ve shared a locker with his corner cubby in Denver.
“He wants to be the face of a program, of a franchise, of a building, of a team, however you want to phrase that,” former Broncos quarterback Drew Lock told The Denver Post.
“And honestly, that place — with how much turnover there has been — they’re lucky to have a guy like that … (who) can be so even-keeled,” Lock, now the Seahawks’ QB, said.
Has it been easy? No. Heavens, no. Every offseason brought a new offensive carousel. Around Sutton’s third or fourth year in Denver, his frustration started to boil as the end of his first deal approached, fellow former Broncos receiver Tim Patrick recounted. Fellow former Bronco Kendall Hinton chuckled, remembering the times he’d pass Sutton and remember to steer clear.
If Sutton isolated himself, or got quiet, Hinton knew: Let me give ‘Court’ some space right now.
Sutton and the Broncos have found stability in each other during the Payton Era. Nothing’s ever perfect. Frequently, opposing secondaries have shaded Sutton’s way in 2025; Denver’s WR1 is second to Troy Franklin on his own team in targets over the last 12 weeks. Frequently, Sutton’s old high school coach Glen West will flip on a Broncos game on Sundays and wonder if his former receiver is even on the field.
None of it fazes Sutton anymore. Ask Denver’s receivers: Their leader does not care about his touches. He provides a “sense of security” for the rest of his room, as Franklin says. Kyrese Rowan, an undrafted rookie receiver who’s bounced around Denver since May, swears — straight face and all — he’s never seen the 30-year-old vet in a bad mood.
For more than a decade, Sutton has been committed to mastering his own mind. Nobody else’s.
“He has a calmness to him where he knows what he can do on this field, and nothing really surprises him anymore,” Patrick reflected.
“He has stability now with a coach and a quarterback, to where … you don’t have to worry about every offseason or every week, some years, where you don’t know who’s going to be the starting quarterback,” Patrick continued. “So you can tell, he’s at peace.”
The beginning
In late 2014, a book called “The Mental Game of Football” made its way to Morris, who’d just been hired as the head coach at SMU. Morris loved it enough to get his recruiting director, Mark Smith , to call the book’s author, Brian Cain . The three met and agreed that Cain would come on in an official role as a mental-performance specialist.
Sutton was one of the first players the staff wanted Cain to work with.
“If a coach says, ‘Hey, I think this is going to be beneficial for you and your development,’ he doesn’t ask, ‘Why?’ ” Cain said. “He says, ‘when.’ And that’s Courtland Sutton to a T.”
Sutton was coming off a redshirt-freshman season for a 1-11 program , and was converting from defensive back to receiver. He wanted his development to happen right then, Morris recalled. So the head coach asked Cain to work with him on mental transitions: flushing the bad, keeping him grounded.
Through Sutton’s next three seasons at SMU and beyond, Cain worked with Sutton on what he called “process goals.” Breathwork. Meditation. Visualization. Journaling. Teammates voted Sutton a captain, and voted him as having the best work ethic on the roster, one of many core values that Cain and Morris tried to establish at SMU.
During fall camp before Sutton’s senior season, core players held a two-hour meeting to deliver individual presentations on implementing the core values. Long after players cleared out at the end of the meeting, Sutton lingered in the back of the room, re-stacking chairs the group had taken from another space down the hall.
“I think of any guy in that program — and any guy I’ve worked with as a college athlete — he understood what was controllable and what was not as good as anybody,” Cain said.
On Wednesday, when asked about Cain, Sutton grinned. Sutton estimated 60% to 70% of football is mental. He is a man of routine, and his routine established at SMU has only compounded in pursuit of self-actualization.
Still, Sutton said he lives by a set of “ABCs” that Cain preaches: Act big. Breathe big. Commit big.
“It’s something so simple,” Sutton said, “but being able to bring yourself back into focus. Into the now. Into where your feet are. I’m a big ‘be where your feet are’ type of person.’ ”
Act big
On Sept. 9, 2018, in the third quarter of his NFL debut against Seattle, Sutton came off the field on third down.. Fellow rookie wideout Patrick cycled in, and missed a ball over the middle from then-Broncos quarterback Case Keenum.
Emmanuel Sanders, a 31-year-old veteran receiver, came back with Patrick to the sideline, pulled both he and Sutton aside, and gave both a lashing that would last a lifetime. Four-letter words. Biting words. Patrick was cussed out for not catching the ball. Sutton was cussed out, more importantly, for simply not being out there on third down.
Patrick would not reveal Sanders’ specific words to Sutton, because they are not fit for print. But the sentiment was simple, as Patrick recalled: No matter what’s going on in a game, be on the field on third down. That’s the money down. That’s how you get paid.
“I swear, after he cussed us out, embarrassed us on the sideline,” Patrick recalled, “there was just a different ‘Court.’ Like, he just turned into a different animal on the football field after that.”
With first and second-round quarterbacks, with veterans and backups, Sutton’s reliability on third down has only grown in Denver, even as his overall role has fluctuated. Over the past two seasons, Sutton has single-handedly accounted for 39% of the Broncos’ conversions in third-and-long situations (greater than 7 yards), according to Next Gen Stats data compiled by The Post. It’s where his physical leverage best comes into play: Isolate his 6-foot-4 frame, long limbs, and 216-pound strength in press coverage, and he establishes “a lot of trust” from quarterbacks on third down.
“(Nix) understands that …. If you get into any trouble whatsoever, just find me,’ ” Sutton told reporters in late September. ” ‘I’ma be somewhere around.’ ”
A 23-year-old Sutton learned that from Sanders, Patrick believes. They had two veterans in that room in 2018, their rookie year: Sanders and the late Demaryius Thomas, who Sutton still reveres. And a 30-year-old Sutton carries the torch in Denver, years later.
These days, Broncos rookie Pat Bryant goes to Nothing Bundt Cakes on gamedays to pick up specific orders for the entire receivers’ room. Franklin and Devaughn Vele did the same as rookies in 2024. Sanders and Thomas started the tradition; Sutton enforces it now.
He followed Sanders’ words, back then. And he followed Thomas’ actions.
“They’ve had some guys like Demaryius in the past that have been those kind of people, that are just the rock of that place,” said Steelers receivers coach Zach Azzanni , who coached the Broncos’ wide receivers from 2018-22. “And I think (Sutton’s) that.”
Breathe big
At SMU, Sutton and Cain developed a method they called the “clap” technique. If Sutton dropped a pass, or a play didn’t connect, he’d slap his hands together as a sort of Pavlovian self-conditioning. Wipe the slate clean.
Over the first five years in Denver without a consistent starting quarterback or a stable offensive staff, Sutton learned to control what was within his own sphere, as Azzanni reflected. And the thorn in his side, always, was drops. He dropped nine of his 51 targets in his rookie year in 2018. Six years later, even in a career year with 1,081 yards in 2024, Pro Football Focus credited Sutton as tied with the Cowboys’ CeeDee Lamb for the most drops in the NFL (11).
His response to any adversity — within his control or not — has always been internal. Sutton wears his emotion on his sleeve, Hinton said. But he doesn’t erupt. If Sutton puts his hands on his hips and crosses his legs while standing on the sideline during games, he’s in the middle of processing, according to Morris.
“I know he likes that — throw a little tantrum,” Patrick cracked. “And then once he gets that tantrum out, he’s back to normal.”
Sutton’s process has rarely wavered over the years. Undrafted rookie Rowan has sat next to him often in meetings and noticed the veteran’s notebook is still filled to the brim with scribbles. He’s still the most diligent note-taker in the room — in Year 8.
Azzanni began every practice in Denver for years with seven minutes on the JUGS machine; Sutton would be the first receiver out, Azzanni recalled, no matter what.
Sutton’s drop rate in 2025 (6.7%) is now the lowest it’s been in any full season since his only Pro Bowl nod in 2019, according to Pro Football Focus. The misses still come. They linger less.
In Week 5 of October, the Broncos traveled to Philadelphia to play the reigning Super Bowl champion Eagles in one of the biggest regular-season games of Sutton’s career. On Denver’s third play of the game, Nix dropped back to loft a one-on-one pass to Sutton down the right sideline. The ball slid through the empty air between Sutton’s open forearms, and the receiver tumbled face-first into a rough drop.
He got up, tossed his head back, and clapped his hands together.
“You see some guys that may not be as mentally strong, or have that release,” Sutton said. “And one play turns into two plays turns into three, and it carries over to the next game. And then some people spiral. And the last thing you want to do is to have something spiral, because you can’t get out of your own head.”
Sutton went on to catch eight passes for 99 yards, including three massive fourth-quarter first-down conversions, and the Broncos beat the Eagles 21-17.
Commit big
Before Bo Nix, there was Ben Hicks.
In the third quarter of the first game of Sutton’s junior season at SMU, starting quarterback Matt Davis tore his ACL. SMU’s season suddenly rested on the shoulders of Hicks, the backup QB and a redshirt freshman. Strength coach Trumain Carroll realizing the importance of the coming minutes, went over to Hicks to impart a few words.
Except Sutton was already there, feeding him reassurances, Carroll remembered.
You got this. It’s go time. This is what you’ve been preparing for.
In the season that followed, Sutton spent 15 to 30 minutes after every practice running routes with Hicks and talking through coverages, former SMU safety Jordan Wyatt said. SMU went 5-7 that year, and then 7-5 in Sutton’s subsequent senior season, with Hicks fully running the show.
“He helped Ben grow up,” Carroll reflected. “He helped Ben gain the respect and earn the right to lead the locker room.”
A decade later, Nix shares a certain ESP with Sutton — and a trust — different from any other Bronco receiver. After the Broncos’ win over the Bengals in early October, Nix’s wife, Izzy, and Sutton’s wife, Brea, posted a picture of themselves wearing shirts with Nix and Sutton’s faces photoshopped over Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly’s characters from the movie “Step Brothers.” A week later, Nix credited Sutton for constantly reminding him he had his back in the Broncos’ comeback win over the Eagles.
“In that situation, it’s almost like — who wants the football?” Nix said, “And ‘Sutt’ wants the football.”
Sutton has committed to Nix. And the rest of the building. Take undrafted-rookie Rowan, who just re-signed to the Broncos’ practice squad this week after being cut last week. He is waiting out a short-term rental home. He knows his current stay might be short. The 24-year-old has no family in Denver, and no partner, and no kids, and no dog, he rattled off to The Post on Thursday.
Sutton knew all this. So he invited Rowan to his home for Christmas.
“I can talk about him all day,” Rowan said. “I talk about him all day with my friends. Because I thought he was, like — if you’re a WR1, you’ve been in the league for as long as he has, you’ve done what he’s done, you’d expect a little bit of an entitled, cocky (guy).
“But nah. Not at all.”
Sutton has put together another great, if unspectacular, campaign this season: 56 catches, 773 yards, five touchdowns through 13 games . Where could he be, perhaps, if he hadn’t torn his ACL in 2020? Or had more early-career stability? Or played in a different system entirely, where he was force-fed targets?
All of that, though, exists in the past or the future. Not the now. Denver is a “place that appreciates him,” as Lock reflected. And Sutton, Lock believes, understands that.
“There’s so much going on that you can miss,” Sutton told The Post, “if you’re looking past what’s right in front of you.”
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