The Denver Broncos selected Courtland Sutton with the 40th overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft. Since this time, Sutton has been forced to line up alongside Case Keenum, Joe Flacco, Drew Lock, Brandon Allen, Jeff Driskel, Brett Rypien, Teddy Bridgewater, Russell Wilson, Jarrett Stidham, and finally Bo Nix as his quarterback. Sutton signed a four-year contract worth just over $60 million, which started in the 2021 season and is heading into the final season of this deal. The 29-year-old is in a position to earn another lucrative deal if things break right this season. With Nix hopefully in place as the franchise quarterback that the organization hopes he can be, what type of fantasy football impact will Sutton have in the 2025 NFL season?
UPDATE (July 28th): Courtland Sutton has agreed to a four-year, $92 million contract extension with the Broncos, putting any contract concerns to the side.
Courtland Sutton’s 2025 fantasy football outlook:
There is some new life to the Broncos franchise with Bo Nix at the helm. Following a disastrous two seasons with Russell Wilson, Denver selected Nix with the 12th overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft and made him the Day 1 starter. Across the 17 games he played, Nix threw for 3,775 yards, 29 touchdowns, and 12 interceptions while adding 430 rushing yards and four touchdowns with his legs.
Courtland Sutton was right at the top of the list of players most positively impacted by the Auburn and Oregon product’s arrival. He pulled in a career-high 81 catches for 1,081 receiving yards and eight touchdowns. This marked his most receiving yards since 2019 and the second most touchdowns of his career. Based on DraftKings scoring, Sutton averaged 14.7 fantasy points per game last year, which was tied for 24th among wide receivers. His 250.3 total fantasy points ranked 11th among wide receivers and 46th among all positions last year. This also marked the best fantasy football output of Sutton’s career. Looking at the production throughout his career, the SMU product has tallied average fantasy outputs of 8.5, 14.3, 9.6, 9.2, 10.8, 12.1, and 14.7 across his seven seasons.
What is especially intriguing from a value standpoint is that Sutton did not hit his stride until the second half of the season. He struggled to get on the same page as Nix over his first six games, posting just a 44.7% catch rate and recording 21 catches for 277 yards and two touchdowns. He also failed to record a catch in Week 7. Over the next six games, he posted a 73.7% catch rate on 9.5 targets per game and tallied 97 or more receiving yards in four of these six games and at least six catches in each game. Sutton cooled down a bit in the final few weeks, but tallied five or more receptions in nine of the final 10 weeks of the season and finished with some of the best stats of his career.
While there is often concern over the famous “sophomore slump” for rookie quarterbacks in their second season, Nix has a bit of a different outlook than most rookies. He is already 25 years old and has spent five years at Auburn and Oregon before making the NFL leap. Sean Payton is also about as ideal a head coach pairing that a young quarterback could ask for.
Sutton is currently projected as roughly the 25th-ranked fantasy football wide receiver based on ADP, which leaves plenty of potential value. He has tallied over 1,000 yards receiving twice in his career, including last season, and has 18 touchdowns over his past two years. With a stable quarterback outlook and there being some notable signs of chemistry growth last season, look for Nix and Sutton to take a further stride forward this year. Label him as a high end WR2 for now but don’t be shocked if Sutton truly takes the leap and ends up as one of the 12 best fantasy football wide receivers this season. With a contract on the line and a better quarterback outlook than he has had in the entirety of his career, count on a strong showing from Sutton this season in Denver.
