Courtland Sutton is off to a career-low start to his ninth NFL season. Bo Nix's slump hasn't helped matters, especially given that Sutton plays a quarterback-dependent position, but throwing out his 2020 campaign, which was mostly lost to an ACL tear, this is the slowest start to a season he's ever had.
Throw in the first-year learning curve of offensive coordinator Davis Webb calling the offensive plays the first four games, only to have Sean Payton take the play sheet back for Week 5, and the Broncos' juggling of how to fit in new wide receiver Jaylen Waddle, and it's been a struggle for Sutton this season.
The two-time Pro Bowler is on pace for a forgettable season statistically, but the 3-2 Broncos continue to win more games than they lose. Sutton's impact on this offense has been forgettable through five games, but he's striving to cultivate the right mindset and not allow his dip in production to affect his approach as a pro.
On Tuesday, the Broncos practiced for the first time this week in preparation for Thursday night's home tilt against the defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks. When asked after practice how he's handling not getting the ball as much this season, Sutton said, "Day by day, bro. Day by day."
A Leader's Mindset
Then the Broncos team captain let the fan base and media in on how he maintains his resilient mindset.
"Come to work every day, smile on my face, ready to work. You never know when the ball's going to find you," Sutton said on Tuesday. "I feel like the moment that you decide to take a step down, take a step away from it because things aren't going the way you want them to go in that specific moment, that's when you start to see failure creep in and doubt and all of these other negative emotions."
Sutton has just 11 catches for 104 yards thus far, but he was able to find the end zone for the first time this season last week in L.A. That used to be a solid single-game stat line for him.
Sutton has only been targeted 25 times, and the fact that they've only translated to 11 receptions illustrates how out of sync his chemistry with Nix currently is. That's a low target-to-reception ratio, but Sutton plans to keep his head down, do his thing, and not let these individual setbacks affect his attitude or mindset.
"Just staying prepared, staying ready, not allowing the circumstance to dictate my attitude, my effort, the way that I come to work, and the way that I attack my days," Sutton said. "So just staying prepared so that when my number is called, I'm ready."
Closing Ranks Around Nix
As for Sutton's take on Nix, the veteran wideout has his guy's back completely, understanding that, as the quarterback, he carries "a lot of weight on his shoulders." If you polled anyone in the Broncos' locker room, Sutton believes you'd get the same response from each of Nix's teammates.
"It's not even just myself; I think if you ask all the guys in that locker room, the offensive guys, defensive guys, special teams, everyone has his back. We all know that for us to have success, we need 10 to be able to have that success," Sutton said of Nix. "We're going to always have his back no matter what, good, bad, or indifferent, because it would be the same way vice versa."
Sutton says that he and Nix have a lot in common as competitors who want everything to be perfect. So when it's not perfect, and frustration begins to settle in, they do a good job of reminding each other to "wipe it" and move on to the next play.
"When things aren't perfect, we get frustrated. So he sees me when something may happen in practice, and he comes over, and he's like, 'Wipe it. Let it go. On to the next one,'" Sutton said of Nix. "For us to be able to have that relationship, to both be able to go back and forth and say, 'Hey, look, wipe it, let it go. I got your back. You got my back. Let's go to the next play,'
"I think, like I said, you ask any of the guys in the locker room, everyone has that same mentality of wanting to have each other's back. And especially when it comes to 10, I think we all have that mentality of wanting to make sure that he feels comfortable, confident to be able to go out there and play fast."
Sutton may not be putting up Pro Bowl numbers right now, but he's fulfilling his role as a locker room leader. He's helping to keep his quarterback confident and rallying support in the locker room.
The Takeaway
The Broncos continue to rally around Nix, and if the best predictor of future outcomes is past outcomes, odds are, things will finally click for the third-year quarterback, and he'll be off and running. It doesn't help that the Broncos have faced the NFL's toughest schedule based on opposing offenses and the second-toughest based on opposing defenses.
I think some fans and folks in the media are losing sight of that because Nix hasn't taken those obvious steps forward that everyone expected him to in Year 3. But the level of competition Nix has faced to start this season — honestly, I've never seen anything like it, and that includes the Peyton Manning and John Elway eras. This Broncos team drew the shortest of short straws.
And yet, the Broncos are 3-2. From what I know about Sutton, Nix, and this Sean Payton-led team, all this early-season resistance training will eventually pay dividends for the Broncos, and they'll reach critical mass.
In the NFL, it's more about how you finish than how you start. Amid the rocky road of this early-season gauntlet, it hasn't been pretty, but the Broncos are still finding ways to win.
When they finally pull away from the first eight-week portion of this schedule, watch out. This team is developing a big, durable callus. And when everything finally clicks, nobody is going to want to see the Broncos on the schedule.
They've just got to keep their heads above water until this eight-week gauntlet is behind them. With selfless leaders like Sutton and others, I feel more than a little confident that the best is yet to come this season.
Add us as a preferred source on Google