ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — When Broncos’ receiver Courtland Sutton was unofficially holding out to protest his contract this offseason, better believe the vultures were circling.
Vultures being other teams that could have used his proven pass-catching talents that become manifest in the red zone area.
“I’m going to say probably in the last two, three months there’s been multiple teams calling about Courtland,’’ Broncos head coach Sean Payton said in a conference call with the local media Monday. “He’s a good football player.”
Sutton wound up reporting to the mandatory minicamp in mid-June to avoid $100,000 in fines and he showed for the first day of training camp after the Broncos sweetened their incentive package from $1 million to $1.5 million, on top of the $13.5 million payout he is scheduled to receive. The incentives are primarily based on both offensive team improvement and personal receiving yard thresholds.
Meanwhile, the San Francisco 49ers were having trouble reaching a contract agreement with one of their top receivers, Brandon Aiyuk. When the two sides did agree to a four-year, $120 million extension last week or $30 million a year (see why Sutton held out?), Dianna Russini, a prominent NFL reporter for The Athletic, stated the 49ers tried to trade a third-round pick to the Broncos in exchange for Sutton with San Francisco then dealing Aiyuk to the Pittsburgh Steelers. The report added the Broncos rejected it.
The Broncos were going to play week 2 game against Pittsburgh without Sutton against a Steelers team improved with Aiyuk?
“It’s a little bit of a stretch relative to the specifics,’’ Payton said. “I read the same thing you read and I would say we didn’t get nearly as far down the road as she may have reported. It’s insignificant. For me to comment on every call that comes into George or myself would be ludicrous.”
Payton also explained the decision to sign inside linebacker Kristian Welch, who had been released by Green Bay.
“We felt like inside backer was an area of need for us,’’ Payton said. “We went into the final 53 cutdown looking at that position. He’s someone who stood out on film.”
The Broncos waived undrafted rookie inside linebacker Levelle Bailey to make room for Welch, then signed Bailey to their practice squad.
Those moves came about in part because it was discovered inside linebacker Jonas Griffith had suffered an ACL injury that is going to require a second surgery in a little more than 13 months. Griffith was waived Tuesday with the plan he would be placed on the Broncos’ practice squad as a game-day elevation candidate.
“It’s tough,’’ Payton said. “Tough on him, tough on everyone. He went through the process of getting released and then what was a little bit unusual is his post exam they discovered more of an issue with his ACL. It wasn’t one event specific.
“In the end there will be an injury settlement which is pretty common. What isn’t common is finishing the (offseason and preseason) and playing like he did and then discovering this is a little bit more significant than we thought. We’re going to do right by the player and take care of him. He’s someone that’s busted his tail here for the better part of two years trying to stay healthy.”
Payton would not reveal whether Jarrett Stidham or Zach Wilson would be the No. 2 quarterback behind starter Bo Nix. Both Stidham and Wilson will dress Sunday in the season opener at Seattle, but one must be designated as the No. 3 emergency quarterback.
Stidham figures to be the backup mostly because he was more consistent than Wilson through training camp but also because of economics. It doesn't make sense for Stidham to be kept as the No. 3 quarterback while he's making $6 million a year with only $1 million guaranteed. Stidham's $6 million pay out this year ties him with Washington's Marcus Mariota and and the Jets' Tyrod Taylor for the league's highest-paid veteran backup quarterback (does not include first-round rookies who will back up). But again, Payton has yet to announce his choice.
Nix will begin his NFL career playing in a stadium in Seattle's Lumen Field that is arguably one of the league's loudest in terms of crowd noise. The Broncos started practicing with crowd noise two weeks ago.0
“It’s going to be loud,'' Payton said. "I would imagine there will be some similarities to when Oregon goes to Washington and they’re playing in front of however many thousand people. That’s another loud stadium an hour down the road. So we’ll deal with the crowd noise this week. This won’t be the first game we play where it’s loud.”