One of my favorite wide receivers and most heavily rostered players across my many fantasy football leagues is Courtland Sutton. Typically, players returning from ACL tears need a year to get their legs back under them. Sutton has hit the ground running. As the Broncos prepare on a short week, what can fantasy managers expect from the team’s WR1?
Courtland Sutton is an every-week fantasy starter
Through six weeks of the 2021 NFL season, fantasy scoring at the wide receiver position is way up. Typically, 16 PPR points per game demarcates the WR1 threshold. So far, the last WR1, Diontae Johnson, is averaging 18.4 ppg. Sutton’s 15.4 ppg is good for the overall WR23. He’s been a WR2/3 for six weeks and belongs in fantasy lineups.
Courtland Sutton has been even better than the box score indicates
The most frustrating part about Sutton’s performance this season is it should be so much better. In Week 6, Sutton once again led the NFL in air yards with 243. Most upsetting is Sutton’s unrealized air yards (yards the ball travels in the air before the receiver could have caught it, but didn’t). Sutton entered Week 6 having already left more than 300 yards on the field this season.
For those of you that watched Sunday’s game against the Raiders, you saw Teddy Bridgewater miss Sutton deep twice — once for a long gain and another for a walk-in touchdown. Sutton profiles as a contested-catch/jump-ball specialist, but he’s been elite at getting open.
Splash plays are the bread and butter of fantasy wide receivers. We want our players going deep and catching passes. Sutton’s aDOT (average depth of target) is third-highest amongst wide receivers with at least 20 targets on the season. He’s behind only deep-ball specialist Henry Ruggs and Emmanuel Sanders.
The Broncos WR has a great Week 7 matchup
The Cleveland Browns were expected to have a good defense this season. That hasn’t been the case. Wide receivers, specifically, have had a field day against the Browns.
Only the Titans allow a higher percentage of receiving yards against them to go to wide receivers. Cleveland’s opponents target wide receivers at the second-highest rate in the league.
Sutton remains the alpha in Denver
At the beginning of the season, there were concerns over target competition for Sutton. Since then, Jerry Jeudy was lost to a high ankle sprain and KJ Hamler tore his ACL. The impending return of Jeudy could throw a wrench into Sutton’s target-hog status, but that is likely one more week away.
Expect Sutton to dominate targets for the Broncos once again and start fantasy managers off on the right foot for Week 7.
