Courtland Sutton Camp Update — August 31: A Preseason Without a Sample

The test at the center of Courtland Sutton's season never ran. It was scheduled — three quarters of first-team offense in Friday's finale, with Sutton and Jaylen Waddle both finally healthy — and then Sean Payton called it off on Wednesday, saying of Bo Nix, "Alright, he probably won't play in this game. Alright. Let's not go through everyone else," per Will Petersen at Denver Sports. Denver beat Minnesota 34 to six with the backups carrying the night, and Sutton appears in none of the finale coverage we read. Cut day then came and went without a move at the top of the receiver room, per the transaction report from Aric DiLalla on the team's website.

For anyone new to this feed, the Sutton file is one question: he finished last season as Nix's clear favorite target on genuine volume, Denver traded a package headlined by a first-round pick for Waddle, and a second mouth of that caliber has to eat into somebody's throws. Our June position was that the worry was real but overdone. What August was supposed to add was evidence — and it added none. Injury kept the question unaskable for five weeks, and the one game where it could finally be asked was handed to the backups. The only Nix throw to either of them that made any report we read all preseason is the 35-yard debut ball to Waddle against Green Bay, and no coverage we read puts Sutton on the field alongside him for it. That is the whole sample as the Broncos head to Kansas City. The question arrives at the season exactly as open as it was in June. More when the season starts answering it.

_Data via nflverse._