ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Denver Broncos coach Sean Payton expects wide receiver Courtland Sutton to attend next week’s mandatory minicamp, he said Tuesday.
Sutton, who led the Broncos and was tied for fourth in the league with 10 touchdown receptions last season, has not attended any part of the offseason program, including the current round of OTAs.
Payton said he believed Sutton would attend the mandatory minicamp from June 11-13, but he didn’t have any sort of guarantee from Sutton that he’d be there.
“Yeah, I think he’ll be here for minicamp,” Payton said. “… Man, I just know his work ethic, I know the player, and you know, there’s a list of things that race through your mind in the offseason as a head coach. … He and I have talked. I think that will work itself out.”
Payton, when asked if the absence was contract-related, said “it’s not that he doesn’t like our new uniforms.”
Per the league’s current collective bargaining agreement, a team’s designated mandatory minicamp is the only part of the offseason program that a player could be fined for missing. A player can potentially be fined a total of $101,716 for missing all three days — the fine is graduated and increases for each individual day missed.
Sutton is in the third year of a four-year, $60.8 million deal signed during the 2021 season. He is scheduled to earn a base salary of $13 million this season.
He currently has the potential to earn $100,000 in bonuses that are considered “likely to be earned.” Sutton has also had $2 million of his base salary already guaranteed for the season given he remained on the roster through the end of March.
The 2018 second-round draft pick led the Broncos in receptions (59), yards receiving (772) and touchdowns last season. The Broncos traded wide receiver Jerry Jeudy to the Cleveland Browns just before the draft, and Jeudy then signed a three-year, $52.5 million extension with the Browns.
The Broncos selected two wide receivers in the draft — Troy Franklin in the fourth round and Devaughn Vele in the seventh round — and added Josh Reynolds in free agency.