When Justin Stepp was the wide receivers coach at SMU, he’d often have NFL scouts asking about Courtland Sutton, a prototype prospect at 6-foot-3, 220 pounds.

And sometimes they’d want the dirt on Sutton.

Coach Stepp’s answer: “Well, I named my son after him, so he’s probably not an (expletive).”

His son is 7 years old now, and Courtland Stepp is the biggest Courtland Sutton fan east of Colorado.

That’s the case when you’re named after an NFL wide receiver — and, as Justin Stepp put it, “one of the best human beings our family’s been lucky enough to know; as good as it gets.”

These days it’s Coach Stepp who is the Broncos fan. He’s already tripped to Broncos Park to sit in on meetings with two of his former players in the Broncos wide receivers room: Sutton, the veteran, and Pat Bryant, a rookie. Stepp coached Sutton at SMU from 2015-17 and coached Bryant at Illinois in 2024.

His first piece of advice for the rookie?

“Do everything Courtland does,” Stepp says.

What’s one best-case scenario for the Broncos in 2025? The 22-year-old Bryant shows he has the skills to become a No. 1 wide receiver, eventually supplanting Sutton, 29, in that role.

Emphasis on eventually.

It was that way for Sutton, who entered the Broncos locker room when the late, great Demaryius Thomas was still the unquestioned leader of the wide receivers. “DT” never met a teaching moment he didn’t like and would escort “Court” on trips to the Broncos Boys & Girls Club to emphasize the import of building community.

“I learned so much from DT in a short time,” Sutton told The Denver Gazette.

Now it’s Sutton’s turn to help along the young wideouts charged with elevating the passing game and helping the franchise to back-to-back postseasons for the first time since 2014-15.

Sutton’s in his eighth season with the Broncos. He turns 30 in October. The four men expected to round out the receiving corps have an average age of 22.3 and none have played more than two years in the NFL. Marvin Mims Jr. is 23, Troy Franklin 22, Bryant 22.

Sutton’s career stats: 379 catches for 5,340 yards. The three young fellas’ career stats: 83 catches for 1,143 yards.

Sutton’s also made $55 million in Broncos bucks with a $90 million extension that kicks in next season.

The 2025 season is his teaching moment.

Sutton knows what the young players are going through. During his first NFL preseason, he struggled so severely that he called Stepp, his college position coach, to vent about himself.

“I don’t know if I can do this,” Sutton told Stepp.

“There was a moment of doubt that crept in, because I wasn’t having the early success that I really wanted to have in OTAs,” Sutton says.

Ask four Broncos fans which young receiver will emerge as the next big thing, and you might get four different answers. Here’s a hunch Bryant headlines the next wave of pass catchers. Why? The former Illinois team captain shares several attributes with the former SMU captain, Sutton.

Ask their college position coach.

“The work ethic is the same. Pat Bryant was the first one in this (Illinois) building every morning. Same with Courtland (at SMU),” Stepp says. “Pat Bryant was a pro before he was drafted by the Broncos — diet, film, body, work. Courtland was like that — always doing extra work.”

Both wide receivers, Stepp says, knew every name in the building where they played college ball. Both wide receivers, Stepp says, you had to kick off the field after practice.

Stepp remembers a recruiting event at SMU when Sutton, who was “by far the best player on the team,” was working as an intern with the stadium maintenance crew.

“Courtland was walking around all by himself, picking up trash. That’s who he is,” Stepp says. “And Pat has a lot of those same qualities — first in, last out. They share those same qualities.”

And what says you’ve made an impact beyond the football field?

When a coach names his first son after you.

“Our family obviously loves the kid. I’ll never forget that conversation with Courtland in my office: ‘I got something I need to ask you. Would you mind this?’” Justin Stepp says. “I’ll never forget that moment — ‘I want to name my son after you.’ That was a special one.”