Josh Reynolds is a dagger expert.
That’s “dagger” as in the NFL passing concept, of course.
In Detroit, Reynolds got all the glory on the play. Somebody else handled the clear-out vertical, running a safety down the field to create a void about 18-20 yards past the line of scrimmage, a couple of yards inside the numbers.
Then Reynolds, lined up outside, would run a deep in-cut into that void, find the ball and make hay.
“That was one of my routes, for sure. I was the dagger,” Reynolds told The Denver Post.
Now in Denver, he’s the clear-out man. The ball never goes to that guy.
“Not that I’ve seen in eight years,” he said.
This is the dirty work. Like an off-the-ball screen to free up a shooter in basketball or a rugged forward jostling for position in front of a goaltender in hockey.
“Love of the game route, man,” he says with a laugh.
Courtland Sutton is the Broncos’ dagger man.
He starts outside of Reynolds when the Broncos run this tried-and-true zone-beater. Gets up the field, lets Reynolds do his thing, then snaps inside. During camp and the preseason, rookie quarterback Bo Nix showed an affinity for the play, hitting Sutton on his route in rhythm time and time again.
“He’s a fast dude,” Reynolds said of Sutton. “He’s a fast dude that can stick his foot in the ground and come flat. That’s the whole key to running dagger.”
So far in the regular season, though, Denver’s passing game has been blunted. Their production on dagger and Sutton’s production as a whole? Duller than anticipated.
Sutton’s got five catches on 16 targets through two games and just 64 yards. With a small sample size, one big game can turn those numbers around, but the early per-game and per-target rates are well off Sutton’s career norms.
More pertinent so far is the general inability to get the ball into Sutton’s hands in the first place. Nix targeted him 12 times in Week 1 at Seattle but he only finished with four catches. Then against Pittsburgh, the ball didn’t even get thrown in Sutton’s direction until midway through the third quarter.
“There are routes when he’s primary and you’re hoping that you catch the right look and he gets the throw. It doesn’t always work like that,” offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi said Thursday. “He’s definitely a big part of every game plan and sometimes the flow of the game is such that he doesn’t get the throws like we thought he would.”
Of course, given the overall issues the Broncos have had offensively, nobody is off to a blazing start. But Sutton’s pace out of the gates is noteworthy particularly because of his offseason — he skipped all voluntary team activities to advocate for a contract extension that never came — and because he looked terrific during training camp.
Now, though, it’s a struggle.
Nix has thrown three interceptions while targeting Sutton. The receiver could have been credited with a target on the final-play pick Nix threw against Pittsburgh, too.
“He plays ‘X’, but he can play other spots,” head coach Sean Payton said of Sutton. “A lot of (the lack of production) gets back to the third downs. (Wednesday night) we’ll be game-planning third down and we have to be better in that area to add more snaps throughout the course of the game.”
Bo Nix (10) and Courtland Sutton (14) of the Denver Broncos talk before taking the field against the Seattle Seahawks during the late fourth quarter of the Seahawks’ 26-20 win at Lumen Field in Seattle, Washington on Sunday, Sept. 8, 2024. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)
Indeed, half of Sutton’s targets so far have come on third down and on those snaps, Nix is 2 of 8 for 43 yards and a pick.
Last year, Sutton caught eight of his 10 touchdowns in the red zone. Through two games this year: One catch on five targets for 10 yards, two interceptions and another that was nearly picked.
Sutton is a moneymaker in the intermediate part of the field. He’s a big target and he’s got the ability to create space, but he’s not the type of receiver to flat run by a defensive back.
Dagger is a perfect example.
Nix has tried him on it three times already in two games. Against Seattle, Nix airmailed the first and then the second came up short because of pressure up the middle. Finally, against Pittsburgh, they got the look they wanted and Nix pinned a perfect ball on him for 26 yards.
Overall, though, anything beyond 5 yards in the air has been inconsistent at best for Nix and the Denver offense.
“I don’t think it’s one thing,” Lombardi said. “I think it’s everything working together — timing, protection routes. There’s not one thing that goes into it. It’s like most things on offense, it’s 11 guys working together.”
Until they do, Sutton will likely continue to operate in a kind of limbo.
He’s in that mode career-wise, too.
Denver added up to $1.5 million in incentives for him to end what he described as an offseason “stalemate.” If the Broncos’ offense wallows, though, that’s money he won’t see much or any of.
A recent under-the-radar move could impact his future roster status, too.
Denver in Week 1 made Sutton more expensive to cut or trade after the season but also took a spring or summer extension off the table.
Tight on cap space but wanting to sign cornerback Pat Surtain II to a mega extension, the Broncos created room by converting $11.875 million of Sutton’s $13 million base salary to signing bonus. Importantly, they also added three void years to his contract to maximize the cap savings in the short term.
That contract adjustment, though, means Sutton is now ineligible for an extension for a year due to a rule that says contracts can’t be renegotiated more than once per 12 months.
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So now Sutton carries a $20.2 million cap hit for 2025, per OvertheCap. The Broncos could save $6.875 million if they cut him after this season but would incur $13.325 million in dead cap, too. That’s nearly $10 million more than before the contract adjustment and that prorated bonus money would stay on the books if the Broncos traded him, too.
Simultaneously, though, the sides couldn’t formalize a contract extension until the 2025 regular season even if they wanted to.
That will be more pertinent in January than it is now. For the moment, the focus is just on getting the Broncos’ top receiver going.
Perhaps it will start with a dagger.
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