Sometimes, life is only as easy or as hard as you make it, and the Broncos are making life hard on themselves lately. The Broncos' offense has sputtered, and the passing game has been the main culprit. Notably in recent weeks, the Broncos haven't been getting one of their captains the ball.
Over the Broncos' last five games, Courtland Sutton has brought in just 225 receiving yards, good for 45 yards a game. On a smaller sample scale, the Broncos' top receiver has only 54 receiving yards on four receptions, despite ten targets. Simply put, Sutton has not been a factor in the Broncos offense over the past two games.
If the Broncos are going to correct their offensive ship, they'll need to find a way to erase this troubling trend. When Bo Nix is at his absolute best, he targets Sutton frequently and often can connect with him for big plays. Recently, that element of the Broncos offense has been missing, and the total offensive output from the team has dropped off incredibly. Thankfully, there's an easy way to fix this.
The Broncos need to get Courtland Sutton the ball more down the stretch
If the Broncos are going to avoid further offensive woes, especially as the playoffs draw near, they need to get their best skills player the ball. Sutton has consistently been Denver's top target for the better part five seasons now, and it needs to be refelcted on the field. To be exact, there isn't another receiver on the team close to the production of Sutton.
This isn't the only reason the Broncos' offense has struggled, however. Missing Marvin Mims on Thursday limited their ability to stretch the field, and not having Quinn Meinerz for over half of the game did not help either. Remove a pair of All-Pros from any unit and there will be a drop off, but the Broncos felt it dramatically against the Raiders.
With now a mini-bye week on deck, the Broncos will have time to get their roster healthy. Denver just completed a 7-wins-in-39-days stretch, and the team is the most banged up they have been all season. With a considerable amount of time to get their roster healthy, the Broncos offense figures to get a boost from player availability alone. Even once all the pieces are back on the field, the need to prioritize Sutton in their game plan.