Week 9 was supposed to be a big game for rookie wideout Courtland Sutton — maybe even the biggest of his young Denver Broncos career. The front office traded away the franchise’s second all-time leading receiver in Demaryius Thomas to the very team the Broncos would face in the same week.

It was an opportunity for Sutton to create some contrast. Out with the old, in with the new.

The rookie second-rounder didn’t exactly play poorly, but he didn’t set the world on fire like I’m sure he’d imagined he would. But the Houston Texans defense is underrated and tenacious.

Still, Sutton hauled in three of his five targets for 57 yards. Meanwhile, Thomas caught all three of his targets for 61 yards. Call it a draw.

The day after the game, however, Broncos head coach Vance Joseph didn’t sound all that enthused about Sutton’s first career start.

“He made some plays for us,” Joseph said on Monday from team headquarters. “Obviously, playing more downs now, he has to get in better football shape. He got a little tired yesterday. That comes with being the main guy. Playing more downs and playing full speed for 50 plays, that’s tough. He has to get in NFL football shape. When that happens, he’s going to, in my opinion, be a special player.”

It was certainly a shot across Sutton’s bow. Boy, you’d better get your body right. But Joseph concluded his remarks on a high note, remaining steadfast in his faith in Sutton's future.

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With Thomas on the visitor’s side of the field, Sutton saw his playing time increase, though it didn’t seem to correlate to increased production. Sutton went from playing 49 snaps as Denver’s third receiver in Week 8 to playing 56 snaps in Week 9 vs. the Texans.

From the TV broadcast, its difficult to deduce whether Sutton was gassed, or whether he took himself off the field at times. But if the coach, who up until this point has said nothing but praiseworthy compliments about Sutton, says that he needs to get into ‘NFL football shape’, it’s probably true.

“You could see it yesterday, he can make plays with the ball in his hands,” Joseph said. “It was fun to watch him do that.”

No doubt, coach. With the ball in his hands, Sutton is able to make some amazing things happen. He had a catch-and-run of 22 yards in Week 9, where he broke some tackles and rumbled downfield for yards after the catch.

But Sutton could have had an even bigger game had the chips fallen just a little differently. In a rare jump-ball situation in which he did not come down with it, Sutton was targeted deep in the end zone by Case Keenum. He went up and plucked the ball but as Suton was securing it to his body, Texans defensive back Shareece Wright made a phenomenal play to knock it loose.

Win some, lose some.

More often than not, however, that’s a play Sutton makes and his stat-line doubles the yardage and adds a touchdown to the total. It was a solid, if unspectacular effort from the rookie in his first career start, but the Broncos lost by two points. Those big plays that don’t get made are the ones that oftentimes spell the difference between a win and a loss.

“It was awesome to be able to go out there and do that,” Sutton said post-game. “I wish we got the ‘W.’ That (starting) is something very small, it is whatever. From the team aspect, I wish we would have gotten the win big picture wise. We get to go into the bye week and work on ourselves.”

Joseph is using a little coach psychology on his rookie by calling out his conditioning in a public setting. Joseph didn’t have to do that, but if I had to bet money on it, I’d wager that between now and Denver’s Week 11 tilt at the L.A. Chargers, Sutton’s going to work extremely hard on his conditioning so that when he’s on the field, he can maximize his play-making potential for the Broncos, and avoid being called out by his boss again.