Courtland Sutton said the painful truth about Broncos missing the Super Bowl

There are few things in football more brutal than making it all the way to the Championship round of the playoffs and being sent home prematurely. One thing that would qualify as worse would be your quarterback getting hurt on one of the last plays of a Divisional round victory, being placed on injured reserve, and wondering what could have been if he'd stayed healthy.

Oh that's right -- that's the exact situation the Denver Broncos faced just a couple of weeks ago.

With the Broncos out of the playoffs, a number of players are in the bittersweet position of participating in the Pro Bowl games. One of those players is wide receiver Courtland Sutton, who was interviewed and gave the painful truth about the Broncos not being one of the last two teams standing this season.

Courtland Sutton says everyone knows the Broncos should be in the Super Bowl

"I eventually got over the what-ifs, but I haven't got over the situation. I told my boy, I said, 'Maybe after the game I'll get over it. Once the Super Bowl ends, I'll get over it.' But, best of luck to both of those teams going out there, performing, doing their thing. Everyone knows the Broncos should have been in there, but it's alright."

- Broncos WR Courtland Sutton

It's clear that the loss in the AFC Championship Game is still affecting Broncos players. And maybe digging even deeper, it was the loss of Bo Nix. That is really the biggest "what if" in this entire situation. Sure, the Broncos came just three points away from the AFC Championship against the Patriots, but not having Bo Nix in the Super Bowl would have cast another dark cloud over that game in itself.

It's torturous enough for Broncos Country, but imagine being one of those players. It's a helpless situation, worse than losing a game and feeling like you could have done more within those 60 minutes of football. The loss of Bo Nix was something that derailed the entire operation of the team.

As much as everyone believed in backup quarterback Jarrett Stidham, the timing of the Nix injury and how badly the Broncos were missing his presence was too much to overcome.

And to Sutton's point here, if the Broncos had Nix for the AFC Championship Game, most people agree that he would have been the difference between the Broncos winning and losing. Having Nix's game experience in situations similar to what Jarrett Stidham struggled with, there's just no replacement for that.

This past season will go down as one of the more torturous "what if" stories in Denver Broncos lore, and it's still eating away at Courtland Sutton. At least, until the Super Bowl is officially over.