3. Courtland Sutton, WR
Alright, when I say that I think Courtland Sutton should be "off limits" at the NFL trade deadline, I think we need to add some nuance to that. I'm not going to sit here and say that the Broncos should keep all of these players we're talking about even if they get offered a blockbuster deal in return.
All I'm saying is that if the Broncos are only going to get offered late Day 3 picks for some of their best players, the team isn't really in a position to do that kind of stuff right now. I'd much rather have Courtland Sutton for the rest of this season (and beyond) than a 5th-round pick in 2024.
Some of you may disagree with that, and that's fine.
I've been about as hard on Courtland Sutton as anyone in the Denver Broncos media sphere, because I think everyone expected him to return to his 2019 form sooner rather than later. It's taken a bit, but we're finally seeing some more of that. Although he's not been overly consistent early this season, the last couple of weeks we've seen Sutton make some of those ridiculous catches like we saw from him in 2019.
I think Sutton is emerging as potentially the Denver Broncos' WR1 again, at least in a number of ways. He's proving himself to be a true go-to threat and not only are we seeing him excel in the red zone this season (5 TDs through 7 games) but we're seeing him capitalize on downfield opportunities.
With the way Sutton has played lately, you could make a great argument about the Broncos getting maximum value for him, but unless we're talking about a 2nd or 3rd (or better), I'm not trading him right now.