They come along only once in a while, rarely enough that it’s obvious when they do. They’re sudden. They’re different. And their God-given physical talent is merely half of the equation.
Courtland Sutton is one. He pops, then he beams. He’s Clinton Portis, Chris Harris Jr., Brandon Marshall, the wide receiver. There’s a spirit and enthusiasm about them, noticeable when and even long before they suit up in pads.
“Courtland, he’s got life in him,” said Steve Stigall, director of football operations at Southern Methodist, where Sutton played four seasons before he was drafted in the second round by the Broncos.
“He’s a unicorn,” Stigall said. “Guys like him, there’s just not many.”
Put it this way: Sutton has yet to make an NFL catch — that’s coming Sunday against the Seattle Seahawks — and he already has a U.S. President in his corner. It was back in the spring, just days before the NFL draft, when George W. Bush flashed a smile and told his cousin, Broncos president Joe Ellis: “You guys are going to take my guy, Courtland Sutton!”
Texas recognizes Texas. And the NFL soon will recognize Sutton as one of the most dangerous wide receivers rocking a pair of cleats. Watch. It’s coming, and soon. Sutton is 6-foot-4, 216 pounds, and the best thing to happen to the Broncos since Super Bowl 50. He’s 22 and a guy we’ll be talking about when he’s 62.
Is that too much for a rookie?
This isn’t just any rookie we’re talking about.
“Ultimately, for myself, when I walk away from the game, I want people to talk about me in the same conversation as Calvin Johnson, Larry Fitzgerald, E-Man (Emmanuel Sanders), Demaryius Thomas — the guys who came into the league and made a statement for themselves,” Sutton told me on Monday. “Guys respect their name, now and forever. That’s the point I want to get to. When people talk about Courtland Sutton, I want them to say, ‘That guy is one of the best to ever play the position.’ That’s what I want to be, and I’m going to work every day to make that happen.”
Five months into his Broncos career and I’ve yet to see Sutton without a smile glued to his face, one of his fishing-net hands on someone’s shoulder, or the slightest suggestion he’s had a bad day.
Courtland Sutton doesn’t get bad days. Bad days get Courtland Sutton.
“I was in Houston with (star wide receiver DeAndre) Hopkins as a rookie — very comparable,” Broncos coach Vance Joseph said.
Woo, boy. That’s a mouthful.
And it’s not too much.
Peep the film from the Broncos’ third preseason game, against the Redskins. Second-and-10, ball’s on their own 25-yard line, Sutton’s matched up with a former All-Pro cornerback, Josh Norman. And Courtland slips and almost falls at the line of scrimmage! No matter. After regaining his balance, Sutton blows past Norman and skies for a 27-yard reception. Easy peasy — in his third NFL appearance.
“It was a good opportunity for me to see where I’m at, against the best in the league,” Sutton said of the Norman play. “In college, coach (Chad Morris) would always tell us that we’re playing against nameless, faceless opponents. It doesn’t matter who you’re lined up against. I just saw it as an opportunity to go out and make a play. If I don’t do my part, it hurts our offense and ultimately hurts our team. I never want to be a guy who’s hurting my team.”
It says here this rookie class will shape the Broncos franchise for the next half-dozen to dozen years, give or take a contract extension or three. Royce Freeman on Monday was named the first rookie to start for the Broncos at running back in Week 1 since Terrell Davis in 1995. The Broncos need help at linebacker, and here’s a hunch Josey Jewell wins a starting job at some point during his rookie season. Pass-rusher Bradley Chubb should inject new zip into Von Miller’s career. DaeSean Hamilton operates like an old pro, and Phillip Lindsay, well, he’s Phillip Lindsay.
Sutton? Gifted. Invested. Different. His first full day as a Bronco — April 28, 2018 — Sutton strode into the UCHealth Training Center with a bubbly personality everyone noticed. I asked what in life gets him fired up for the day ahead.
“I’m fired up about life,” Sutton said then.
For a Broncos locker room that had grown stale, that kind of spirit is exactly what they needed.
***
Where does it all come from?
His parents, to start. Sutton said Ryian and Phelicia Marshall are his role models — football-wise and life-wise. His mom “is one of the most loving, selfless people you’ll ever meet,” he says. Each Christmas she buys at least one gift for every one of his cousins. “And I have a huge family,” he says. His father works as a lineman for an electrical company near his hometown of Brenham, Texas.
“I remember there would be times when it was raining and lightning and thundering so bad outside. And he’d get a call to go work on the electrical poles, the worst place you could be,” Courtland said. “But that’s where I get my work ethic from. The man just worked his butt off.”
Same for Courtland. Prior to his freshman year of high school, his parents said the money for his school clothes would come from his own pocket. So they put Courtland and his younger cousin to work building and fixing the fencing around their extended family’s nearby farm.
“You wanna talk about hard work....” Sutton said, his voice trailing off. “If a bull had broken through the fence, we had to go fix the fence, no matter whose bull it was. Somebody’s cows got out, we had to help each other out. But you know what? A lot of those life lessons I have today I learned on the farm.”
His fishing rods — a favorite possession — just arrived here last week. Courtland also adopted a Cocker Spaniel. Rounding out the welcome-to-Colorado care package was Sutton’s first major purchase, a new Jeep Wrangler that he drove to the office on Monday, just in time for Week 1.
“Since I’m in Denver, I got to make sure I fit into the system out here,” Sutton said with a laugh. “And it fits me, you know? I’m not really a Maserati guy. That’s not my style.”
Courtland Sutton is more Von than vain.
“He’s not trying to impress anybody with what he wears or what he owns or how he looks,” Stigall says. “He’s living life.”
Sutton’s NFL life begins Sunday against the Seahawks. He’s No. 14, and you won’t miss him.