Another slow start in Denver has brought about the latest round of trade talks involving the struggling team. Although Randy Gregory went for this season’s trendy low-end trade package — player/seventh for a sixth — and Frank Clark surfaced as a trade chip before being released, the Broncos’ top two wide receivers are again at the center of the trade rumors surrounding the team. With the Broncos at 1-5, they are likely not done moving pieces for draft capital.
In their third full season together, Jerry Jeudy and Courtland Sutton have each spent multiple Octobers in trade rumors. Sutton signed a four-year, $60MM extension in October 2021 but surfaced as a potential trade piece ahead of last year’s deadline. Jeudy, who remains attached to a first-round rookie contract, generated far more interest going into the 2022 deadline.
Teams called the Broncos about Jeudy and Sutton last season, but GM George Paton stood down on both. With the presumed goal of the duo helping a retooled offense around Russell Wilson in 2023, the Broncos held onto their top weapons. While this season has not produced the offensive disaster 2022 did, the Broncos are still not where they want to be on that side of the ball. And both receivers have again come up in potential deals, as the Broncos are believed to be willing to listen on just about anyone not named Patrick Surtain.
The Broncos informed at least two teams — the Cowboys and Giants — their Jeudy pursuit was not sufficient to make a move. Denver was connected to wanting a second-round pick at that point, but this offseason, the now-Sean Payton-run team placed a first-round price on the 2020 first-round pick. Teams understandably balked at that, and Jeudy came into the season as the team’s expected top target. Success has largely eluded the shifty wideout, who has drawn criticism from former players for his unremarkable performance. Through five games (after missing Week 1 with a hamstring injury), Jeudy has just 20 receptions for 222 yards and no touchdowns.
Sutton’s 275 yards and four TD receptions lead the Broncos, and the team did not hold out for a first-round pick in exchange for the former second-rounder this offseason. Denver sought a second-round pick for Sutton, whose $15MM-per-year contract runs through 2025. The Ravens appeared close to making a deal in March, but talks slowed and the team pivoted to a $15MM guarantee for Odell Beckham Jr. While Baltimore’s OBJ signing has not panned out to this point, Sutton is highly unlikely to fetch a second-round pick. Jeudy will not score a first-rounder for the Broncos, and teams may be balking at the Alabama alum’s fully guaranteed $12.99MM 2024 option salary.
A 2018 draftee who developed behind former Denver dynamic duo Demaryius Thomas and Emmanuel Sanders, Sutton has a 1,000-yard season under his belt. That came back in 2019, with a Joe Flacco–Brandon Allen–Drew Lock QB platter targeting the 6-foot-4 receiver. Even as the Broncos’ offense cratered to last place under Nathaniel Hackett, Jeudy posted 972 yards and finished the season strong, recording three 100-yard games in his final five.
Unavailability has largely defined the Broncos’ 2020s receiver blueprint. Sutton suffered an ACL tear in Week 2 of the 2020 season, starting a pattern of injuries that kept the Broncos from fully deploying their planned wideout array together. A reliable target in 2020 and 2021, Tim Patrick also signed an extension in November of ’21 (three years, $30MM) but the 6-4 possession target has suffered ACL and Achilles tears during the past two training camps. The injuries obviously leave the former UDFA’s Broncos future in doubt. Patrick’s injury came after KJ Hamler ran into another health issue, seeing a heart problem lead to a cut. While the Broncos left the door open to the former second-rounder returning, Hamler is now on the Colts’ practice squad. Jeudy has missed 10 career games.
Denver followed up one of the best receiver eras in franchise history — a five-season Thomas-Sanders partnership that involved lucrative extensions sandwiching the team’s Super Bowl 50 win — with what has amounted to a letdown. Payton has been unable to coax steady production from either thus far, and moving one of them appears likely — especially if losses continue ahead of the Oct. 31 deadline. A trade would open up more playing time for second-round pick Marvin Mims, who has shown flashes as a deep threat. The Broncos have not used the Payton-era pickup too often, however, playing him on just 97 snaps thus far. Mims’ 246 receiving yards still top Jeudy’s output.
Jeudy, 24, is tied to a $2.68MM base salary this year. Sutton, 28, is attached to a $14MM base that will be much harder to move. Under Paton, the Broncos have shown a willingness to eat salary to facilitate trades. The Broncos paid all but the prorated veteran minimum to move Von Miller in 2021 (for second- and third-round picks) and did the same to send out Gregory earlier this season. Denver has also been this period’s most notable seller, having dealt Thomas in 2018 (to the Texans, for a fourth-round pick), Sanders in 2019 (to the 49ers, for third- and fourth-rounders) and Bradley Chubb (to the Dolphins, for first- and fourth-rounders, along with Chase Edmonds).
Keeping viable receivers in place to help Wilson may no longer be a concern for the Broncos, who will undoubtedly consider moving on from the underwhelming trade acquisition — via a record-setting dead-money charge, even in a post-June 1 cut scenario — in 2024. But the team’s offseason asking prices for Jeudy and Sutton will probably not be met. Both players do not appear part of Payton’s long-term plan, and each would probably be more interesting on a contender with a better offensive setup.
The Broncos will need to determine how much below asking price they will be willing to go to move on from the pillars of a promising but ultimately disappointing receiving cast. The team has less than two weeks to decide.
As disappointing as this season has been, the Broncos are not required to trade anyone. If nobody wants to pay a good price for their receivers, they shouldn’t force the issue. At the end of the day, you have to ask yourself how the transaction makes your team better. If you can’t answer or have no clear plan for a replacement or for the compensation, you shouldn’t do it. I know Denver is bad, but trading a player just for the sake of trading a player doesn’t automatically make the team better.
I’m beating a dead horse here (like the Chiefs did last Thursday), but I’ll say it again-Denver does not have much capability to “rebuild” while Wilson is tied to his contract. There is no guarantee that whomever they bring in in lieu of Sutton or Jeudy will be any better. What Denver needs to do is to find a way to use Wilson in a way that he’s comfortable as he learns the playbook better. That may involve allowing him to improvise better, since he obviously cannot do many of the things Payton needs him to. That’s why Denver wanted to hold on to Jeudy and Sutton-they’re more useful to Payton than Wilson is, at least right now, due to Wilson’s limitations. Granted, Jeudy and Sutton have underachieved on their end, but Wilson is the limiting factor here, much more than his receivers.
Then you’re also going to have to pay them, and given their collective lack of production, that might be a hard pill to swallow when the alternative could be future draft picks instead of WR’s that have nobody to throw them the ball.
Agreed. No player will cure what ails Denver.
However, the franchise isn’t hamstrung just by Wilson’s contract; they mortgaged draft capital as well.
Instead of requiring a 1st or 2nd, neither of which any GM will give them since O’Brien no longer has that title, maybe look for a buried player plus a pick?
I know it’s a grasp but, as it stands, any value Sutton or Jeudy have diminishes each week. I’m not implying their talent/skill set diminishes; their trade value drops hand-in-hand with Denver’s negotiation leverage.
Their “unicorn rainbow fart” trade would be Chicago deciding Fields IS their franchise QB and willing to offer one of their 2024 picks to give him another receiver.
Again, not likely, but the box Denver has painted itself into can only be mitigated by thinking outside the box.
Sometimes you’ve got to be creative and roll the dice; otherwise all the capital you’ve dropped on Wilson will be for naught. That’s not a trade or extension you build around from the ground up; it’s not remotely feasible
You are right about the lack of draft capitol, but the issue that I have in this situation is that the Broncos can’t ever get into the plus pick-wise with these prospective trades. They will be behind still, but with fewer starters.
Again, if they shed Wilson for a low level QB deal, things would be different, because it would buy them more time. You’re right about the payment situation for Jeudy, I will acknowledge that. And Mims has the speed to do some of what Jeudy does. Sutton is already on the books, despite his skillset being perhaps more in demand trade wise. So I see that there is reason to want a trade. However, I think that Jeudy offers more to Denver than is obvious, which again is not his fault.
My position is that the Broncos have talent on the roster, much more than is shown. It would be worth it to break it up and sell if they could move on from Wilson, but they can’t. So they need to try and make it work. Denver’s specific issue is, again, execution. Whether Jeudy or Sutton stay or go, Denver has to fix that anyway. I could see why Denver would hesitate to pay Jeudy, but I also think he could be much better in a more put together offense. I don’t expect that we’ll see that, though. What I actually expect is to see him go to a different team and play much better there, while Denver spends a pick on a sideways move to replace him. It would be better than trading Surtain, by a long shot. That one would be unforgivable.
Seems like “anyone not Surtain” is a pitch to get higher offers for Surtain.
Jerry, don’t send a first round pick for any of these receivers. You’ve done it three times already and none worked.
That’s not completely true. Cooper played well in Dallas, who still hasn’t been fully replaced.
I’m not sure of whom the other two first round WR trades were.is Roy Williams one? Because if so, I agree there. That was a bad trade.
Joey Galloway, Roy Williams (not the safety). Coop was fine but they ended up dealing him for a 5th or 6th round pick.
Okay, I forgot about the Galloway trade. Thanks for letting me know. Yeah, the trading away of Cooper was silly (it was to save money, which in this case I would say that you get what you pay for) in my opinion, but I have no issue with the acquisition. Thanks for the info.
Any tradeable assets the Broncos have should be sent to Miami to get Fangio back. The Denver defense is in complete shambles without Vic.
I said at the time that if they were going to get a veteran quarterback, Fangio should have remained in place. He actually overachieved, in my opinion, with what Denver had on offense at the time, which was less than now for the most part. Of course, refusing to fire Shurmur made things worse, but Fangio would have been the perfect coach to pair with Aaron Rodgers when that speculation was occurring. I don’t think that he’d have held on to Shurmur after the year ended, especially if an experienced veteran (even if not Rodgers) were brought in.
I mean, Fangio went 7-9 with an injured and incomplete season from Bridgewater, with a game started by a practice squad wideout playing QB, for God’s sake. I think that he deserved at least one chance with a whole season of even decent QB play. That defense, which spent a LOT of time on the field and yet was still ranked highly, would have been deadly with a complete year of above average quarterback play on the other side.