Denver Broncos and Courtland Sutton both win with deal restructure

The Denver Broncos waited until training camp had already begun to make one of their wisest moves of the offseason. The team has officially agreed to tweak the deal of wide receiver Courtland Sutton, who now has the chance to earn an extra $1.5 million in incentives on top of his $13.5 million salary for the 2024-25 season.

The deal is a win for both sides. For Sutton, it obviously provides the chance to earn more money, though it did not afford him a bump in the $2 million in guarantees he’s slated to make this year. It also gives him the security of knowing he’s very likely to be a Bronco for at least the rest of this season.

How Does Sutton’s New Contract Help the Broncos?

From the Broncos’ perspective, there’s absolutely no downside to the new deal whatsoever. The team doesn’t have to shell out extra guaranteed money to a player who caught 10 touchdowns in 2023, and they avoid the bad press of a training camp holdout.

Sutton also brings a veteran presence to a wide receiver room that is full of young faces. Players like rookies Troy Franklin and Devaughn Vele, as well as second-year wideout Marvin Mims will all benefit from having Sutton at camp, to say nothing of rookie quarterback Bo Nix.

Broncos head coach Sean Payton didn’t hide his feelings about having Sutton as a full participant.

“It’s good to have him back out here,’’ Payton said Thursday. “He provides leadership as well as a skill set that we like.”

There's no way to tell yet how many games Nix will start for Denver this year, but sending him out there without a player like Sutton to fall back on could have had disastrous consequences for the Broncos. Fortunately, the team can now look forward to having their most prolific touchdown scorer from a year ago enthusiastically back on the sidelines.