LAS VEGAS — The game was dicey for the favored Broncos.
They were leading, but only by 16-13 a couple plays into the fourth quarter as the lowly Las Vegas Raiders were giving it everything they had. Devaughn Vele had just caught a short pass from Bo Nix for a first down at the Raiders’ 21 yard line, but there was a problem.
Left guard Ben Powers’ right shoe was untied. And with his gloves on and his hands battered from blocking all day and the play clock ticking, he couldn’t get those darn laces to cross.
Down to one knee came top receiver Courtland Sutton to the rescue.
“We joke about it all the time: The more you can do,’’ Sutton said with a smile.
Sutton already has 57 catches for 744 yards and 5 touchdowns. He’s also thrown two passes, completed them both, one to Nix for a touchdown. And now he was going to become a cobbler and tie his teammates’ shoe.
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“I saw him there and I asked him (if I could tie his shoe) and he really bluntly was like, ‘No,” Sutton said as he continued to grin.
Powers gave it one more try before he relented. Go ahead. Sutton tied his shoe. The Broncos huddled up and moved on to the next play.
“I think it shows the brotherhood we have on this team and this locker room,’’ Sutton said in all seriousness. “Guys really care about each other. … When you have that it pushes guys to want to play hard for each other. It might be an unconscious thing of going out there and, “Man, I don’t want to let my brother down.’’
Sutton is on the kind of production run that is carrying his brothers towards the playoffs. Remember the Broncos’ 33-10 win at New Orleans in game 7 when Sutton inexplicably didn’t have a target thrown his way? In the five games since then he has 36 catches for 467 yards and 3 touchdowns. Better than 7 catches and 93 yards per game.
And for the first time in his seven seasons with the Broncos, Sutton won a road game against the Raiders as the visitors with the well-traveled fan base would go on to prevail, 29-19.
“To be able to do something that we haven’t been able to do in a while here, it’s good to see the tide turn,’’ Sutton said. “Now it’s upon us to keep it there. This division has been a tricky one for years and it’s on us to be able to turn that tide and this was a step in the right direction today.”
Sutton is also about to pick up an extra $1 million in incentives. He gets $500,000 if he has 500 yards receiving AND the team improves on its 2023 season in points scored. He gets another $500,000 if he crossed the 750 receiving-yard threshold and again the team improves on points scored.
Sutton has 744 yards this season – one half-mill reached and the other half-mil a mere 6-yard hook pattern away – and the Broncos are averaging 22.0 points per game; they averaged 21.0 points in 2023.
The Broncos’ offense still has five more games to build on its scoring average that has only been rising as Nix progresses through his rookie season.
“He just comes to work and he’s so humble and enjoys the game,’’ Sutton said. “It’s exciting to have that guy back there as our quarterback, as our leader in the offense. He has such a bright future and we’re going to continue to keep getting better. He’s going to keep getting better, our offense is going to keep getting better and if we continue to have that mindset we’re going to be happy with where we wind up at the end.”
There is one more $500,000 incentive within reach for Sutton: 1,065 receiving yards. If he gets there it will be $1.5 million in incentives on top of his already $13.5 million payout.
It cost nothing for Sutton to be a good teammate and tie Powers’ shoe.
