As the veteran in Denver’s wide receiver room, Courtland Sutton is thrilled whenever one of the young guys gets the opportunity to spread their wings.
Rookie Devaughn Vele took off in the Broncos’ 38-6 win over the Falcons on Sunday. The former Utah standout built off a solid performance last week by recording four catches for 66 yards at Empower Field at Mile High. It’s the second time Vele has recorded at least 60 yards receiving in a game this season.
“You can see the writing on the wall,” Sutton said of the team’s seventh-round pick. “Watching him step up to the challenge of becoming that guy has been a lot of fun. … His future is bright.”
Vele got the ball rolling early. During Denver’s first scoring drive, he had a 14-yard reception followed by an 8-yard catch before quarterback Bo Nix threw his first of four touchdowns to second-year tight end Nate Adkins.
In the second quarter, Vele had a 33-yard reception in the middle of the field — an area where he generates much of his production. Vele had three catches for 21 yards in the seams and two catches for 18 yards between the hashes, according to NFL’s Next Gen Stats.
Through 11 games, he has the second-most receiving yards on the team with 281. Nix has a 113.7 rating when he throws to the 6-foot-4 wideout.
“He’s got extremely strong hands in traffic,” Broncos head coach Sean Payton said. “He keeps improving. Part of that is he’s getting more opportunities.”
Bonitto keeps sacking: Nik Bonitto is on quite a run.
He didn’t have a sack in either of the Broncos’ first two games this season. Since then, he’s got nine.
That’s after the third-year edge man logged two more Sunday against Atlanta, both in the fourth quarter. He got Kirk Cousins for a 7-yard loss and Michael Penix Jr., too.
“I would, No. 1, guess that his snap count is higher,” Payton said of Bonitto’s break-out year. “So I would say more opportunity and he’s stronger. With those additional opportunities, I think he’s done a great job of taking advantage of it, to his credit.
“He’s a handful. He’s one of those guys that bends well and it’s really helped us not only on third down but on the earlier downs.”
No Jones, no problem. The Broncos defense thrived even without starting safety and leading tackler Brandon Jones.
Jones was inactive after being listed as questionable with an abdomen injury that Payton said occurred in last week’s loss to Kansas City. He was limited in practice Wednesday through Friday and Payton said the team was being “patient” with his workload. However, before the game, he only walked the perimeter of the field while his teammates warmed up.
In his place, Devon Key started at safety next to P.J. Locke.
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“Overall (the secondary played) well. There were a few mix-ups early on,” Payton said. “Our guys are all working to get healthy, Brandon included.”
Sutton keeps rolling: Sutton didn’t get in the end zone Sunday, but he did catch seven passes (eight targets) for 78 yards. That’s his fourth straight game of 70-plus yards after not hitting that mark in any of Denver’s first seven. Over that span, he’s got 28 catches (38 targets) for 370 yards and a touchdown.
Inactives: The Broncos had a normal-looking set of inactives in addition to Jones on Sunday. They continued carrying Zach Wilson as the emergency third quarterback for game day and otherwise had TE Greg Dulcich, OLs Frank Crum and Calvin Throckmorton, CB Kris Abrams-Draine and DL Eyioma Uwazurike inactive.
Denver on Saturday elevated safety Keidron Smith and inside linebacker Zach Cunningham from the practice squad for the game.
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