Courtland Sutton’s tenure in Denver has been an interesting one, and the book still has chapters to be added, given the trajectory of this offense. His two highest catch totals have come in the past two years, and his catch radius has allowed him to carry strong scoring equity into the second half of his career.
His current fantasy football ADP would make a repeat of 2025 a valuable outcome. Should you be jumping on him at cost as he prepares for Year 9?
Should You Draft Courtland Sutton in 2026 Fantasy Football?
Sutton is a solid player, and the Denver Broncos’ offense is generally one that I have an optimistic outlook for, but how big is the realistic win if you spend an early-to-mid-round pick on him and he comes through for you?
In a season where Bo Nix excelled in scoring situations (11th in red zone passer rating compared to 24th otherwise) and only one of his teammates cleared 50 catches for 500 receiving yards, Sutton was … fine. He recorded four top-12 weeks and nine top-24 weeks. After a strong start to the season, he was fantasy’s WR24 from Week 4 forward, closer to falling outside of the top-35 than cracking the top-15 in terms of PPG.
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There’s nothing wrong with that, and if you got that this season, you’d be dancing, but that’s unlikely to happen. What if Nix regresses in the red area? What if Jaylen Waddle is as good as I project him to be, and this is a Batman and Robin situation more than a 1a and 1b sort of thing?
What if a deep running back room, with the addition of Jonah Coleman, excels? What if one, never mind two, of the imposing sub-25-year-old WRs develop in a significant way? What if the defense is so good that we see it limit the passing volume? They ranked fourth in pass attempts last season, but teams like the Philadelphia Eagles and Seattle Seahawks are cautionary tales of how pass volume can be meaningfully limited when the other side of the ball excels.
The odds of all of those questions taking a turn for the worse are low, but I’m not in the business of taking on a player whom I want to start on at least a semi-regular basis that has that many paths to sustained failure.
Don’t get me wrong, there are roster builds where Sutton makes sense. He has missed just three games over the past five seasons and has hauled in 25 touchdowns since 2023. That said, paying up two to three rounds for Waddle’s services after Denver gave up three immediate picks to acquire him is something I’d prefer to do. I’d also rather wait another two to three rounds and scoop a Jayden Reed or Josh Downs type who has seen targets leave town, not enter.
Sutton’s Dynasty Fantasy Football Value
Last summer, Sutton and the Broncos agreed to a four-year deal. The length of the contract made it clear that Sutton was being real with his career expectations and that this would be his last opportunity to cash in as a high-end threat.
Good for him. Smart move.
With his 31st birthday coming in October, that age curve might be coming faster than any of us thought. His yards per route fell by 11.3% from 2024, but it was very much in line with his career norm, so the physical tools remain. I’m not going to suggest that the Broncos are skittish, but Waddle’s presence resets the timeline a bit for this Bo Nix rookie contract window, and the rest of this depth chart (namely, Troy Franklin and Pat Bryant) has its best football out front.
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His size, play-making ability, and reps with Nix are all valuable. I see them as more valuable, however, to the Broncos than to fantasy managers, and that analysis only strengthens when you look at the dynasty landscape.
The WR position is loaded, and there’s not nearly enough short-term upside to justify the long-term risk in this profile, especially if you’re aligned with me in thinking that the “long-term risk” could be present sooner rather than later. Most of the rookies in this class rank ahead of Sutton for me, and I still think players like Downs and Reed offer enough developmental potential to be ranked ahead of this profile.
