ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- No NFL team returned more players from last year's roster to this year's training camp than the Denver Broncos.
As a result, these Broncos, a 10-win team that reached the wild-card round, don't have any positional battle drama remotely close to last summer's quarterback competition between Bo Nix and Jarrett Stidham.
The 6-foot-4, 216-pound question that does linger, however, is about when the Broncos will sign wide receiver Courtland Sutton to a contract extension. It's a decision the team has said is something they're just waiting for the "right time" to do.
"There's a number of guys -- you're going to ask me about contracts some that are being worked on," coach Sean Payton said after Wednesday's training camp practice. "Some we would never discuss with you and those guys are getting worked on. There's been good communication and I'm just going to leave it at that."
Entering the final season of the four-year, $60.8 million deal he signed in 2021, Sutton is the clear WR1 for a team that has big aspirations this season. His teammates say he is poised to be even better.
"You can tell every year [Sutton is] looking to get better and I feel like we haven't even seen the best of him yet, even though he's been so great," cornerback Pat Surtain II said on Tuesday.
Sutton reported with the rest of the Broncos' veterans for training camp Tuesday and looked as if he had put in plenty of work to make Surtain's prediction a reality. He was a regular participant in the team's offseason work and has been vocal in his belief that the Broncos are ready to compete with the AFC's best.
Payton has said Sutton "is important to what we were doing," and general manager George Paton has also added his confidence in a new deal. A year ago, Sutton stayed away from the voluntary portion of the team's offseason work because he hoped a new deal was in the offing. While an extension didn't come to fruition, the Broncos did add some performance incentives to the third year of his contract last July. And all Sutton did was earn every penny of the $1.5 million in total incentives.
Sutton finished with a career-best 81 receptions in 2024. His 1,081 receiving yards and eight touchdowns were the second-highest season totals of his seven-year career. But perhaps the most important number from Sutton's banner campaign showed how he was Nix's favorite target in contested situations.
Tight-window targets refer to a pass thrown by the quarterback when separation between the receiver and nearest defender was less than yard as the ball arrived. Last season, Sutton and the Bengals' Tee Higgins tied for seventh-most tight-window targets in the league (27). He was the only Broncos' player among the league's top 90 players in the category.
Nix isn't afraid to admit this reliance on Sutton too, saying he has "so much trust in Court ... he's going to be in the right spot and battle for everything to make a play." But the second-year quarterback will have some new options to throw to this season, as Denver signed former Jaguars tight end Evan Engram in free agency and selected Illinois wide receiver Pat Bryant in the third round of April's draft. Payton also believes Marvin Mims Jr., Troy Franklin and Devaughn Vele -- Franklin and Vele were 2024 draft picks -- are ready to expand their portfolios in the offense.
Sutton, Mims and Franklin took most of the snaps with the starters in minicamp and OTAs, but there's still no doubt Sutton is the leader of the receiver room. He is an oft leaned-on player for one of the youngest position groups on Denver's roster.
"I think Courtland, he's a resource for the team from a leadership perspective," Payton said. "There's a work ethic, and a toughness and a consistency day-to-day ... (he) is such a positive role model and leader for these guys."
Mims echoed Payton's sentiment in minicamp: "Court, you can always go to Court with a question about anything. Life, football, offense, whatever. He makes our room go."
Sutton, 29, has repeatedly said he wants to finish his career with the Broncos. He also said that it will all "take care of itself" and he will try to move through the summer as he always has. He will make the selection of jaw-drop catches in the end zone, with his toes down just inside the chalk. He'll accelerate through the middle of the defense after catching a slant. And he'll power his way past a defender along the sideline for a first down.
But when asked in recent weeks about what his role can be in how things go for the Broncos this season, Sutton pointed to when he doesn't have the ball in his hands.
"I think the best teams that perform the best on the field are the teams that are the most tight-knit off the field. When you have a group of guys that care about each other beyond just football and when you have those relationships with guys ... those are the teams that have the most success. You're playing for more than just, 'this is my teammate.'"