JERRY JEUDY STOOD a number of yards away from an NFL Network set in Kansas City earlier than the Denver Broncos‘ Week 6 recreation towards the Chiefs final October.
At the desk that day was former NFL broad receiver Steve Smith Sr., who was on-air for the pregame present. The five-time Pro Bowler had criticized Jeudy’s play earlier than the season on his podcast, referring to him as a “JAG,” brief for “only a man,” a time period used to confer with a median participant. Having heard Smith’s criticism that summer season, Jeudy, pacing forwards and backwards on the sector behind, yelled in Smith’s course a number of instances, which led Smith to double down on his evaluation of Jeudy on air.
“I’m sorry that I mentioned you have been a JAG, only a man who’s a median broad receiver they used a first-round choose on that is not doing something,” Smith mentioned. “I hope immediately that you simply truly present up in a means that you have not confirmed up within the final couple years since they drafted you. … I’m sorry for saying that you simply’re a median broad receiver that they may ultimately transfer on [from].
“And when groups name me and ask ought to they commerce for you, I’ll say, ‘No,’ do not commerce for Jerry Jeudy, as a result of he is mentally unable to deal with constructive criticism … He is usually a broad receiver. He’s a Tier 3.”
Jeudy completed the season with the second-fewest receiving yards in his profession (758) and the Broncos traded him, as Smith speculated they’d, to the Cleveland Browns for 2 picks (2024 fifth- and sixth-rounders) in March after Jeudy requested out of Denver.
In his fifth season, Jeudy continues to be working to be greater than “only a man” and reside as much as the potential that made him the No. 15 choose within the 2020 draft. He was a blue-chip recruit in South Florida when he signed for Alabama, the place he gained the 2018 Biletnikoff Award enjoying alongside three different future first-round receivers — DeVonta Smith, Jaylen Waddle and Henry Ruggs — with the Crimson Tide.
But within the NFL, Jeudy has struggled. He’s watched different 2020 draftees Justin Jefferson, CeeDee Lamb and Brandon Aiyuk, all of whom have been drafted after him within the first spherical, amass 1,000-yard seasons and signal profitable extensions.
Over the previous month, nonetheless, the 25-year-old has been one of many league’s most efficient receivers, placing him on the verge of his first 1,000-yard receiving season. He ranks fourth in receiving yards per recreation (94.8) since Week 8 and has established himself because the Browns’ greatest receiver after they traded Amari Cooper in mid-October. On Monday evening, he returns to Denver to face the Broncos (8:15 p.m. ET, ESPN), the staff that traded him away, for the primary time.
“I did not actually circle [the game] in my thoughts,” Jeudy informed ESPN two weeks in the past. “I’m taking every recreation day-to-day, week by week. But after all that is my previous staff. So you need to have the ability to ball towards them. That’s each competitor for actual.”
JEUDY DESCRIBED HIS 4 seasons with the Broncos as “irritating.”
When requested to mirror on the Smith incident, he mentioned he wished the previous receiver was extra empathetic to his scenario in Denver.
“The solely motive it is annoying is simply that, particularly a receiver like Steve Smith, he understands that you simply’re solely pretty much as good as your quarterback, as your line and as your playcaller,” Jeudy mentioned. “No matter how good you’re, irrespective of how open you get, if you do not get the ball, it do not actually matter. You can have a look at the numbers and say, ‘Oh, he do not acquired the numbers to match to different guys.’
“But if you placed on tape, what number of instances you see me open? Or what number of instances do you see me open and never get the ball?”
Jeudy mentioned the shortage of continuity at quarterback and throughout the teaching employees by no means allowed him to get comfy. The Broncos began six quarterbacks and had 4 head coaches and three offensive coordinators whereas Jeudy was in Denver.
“My rookie 12 months, I had a couple of drops. That was the largest factor,” Jeudy informed ESPN in late November. “But the years after that, I really feel like I wasn’t getting that many alternatives to showcase my expertise with all these totally different OCs and totally different schemes and stuff like that. So I could not actually present my skills and present my route-running abilities.
“It simply wasn’t a match for me.”
In 4 seasons in Denver, Jeudy caught 211 passes for 3,053 yards and 11 touchdowns amid frequent durations of inconsistency, whether or not or not it’s drops or video games with little manufacturing.
Jeudy sought a change in surroundings, telling ESPN that he requested a commerce for 2 straight years. The Browns tried to commerce for Jeudy earlier than final 12 months’s commerce deadline. In March, the 2 sides finalized the deal.
Denver wanted draft picks to rebuild the roster after taking over an historic useless cap cost by releasing quarterback Russell Wilson, which made the commerce extra palatable.
“It simply wasn’t working over there,” Jeudy informed ESPN. “I felt like I used to be a means higher participant than they used me as. I wished to go someplace that will use me, see my full potential and reap the benefits of it.”
Jeudy signed a three-year, $58 million extension days after being traded to the Browns but it surely was a tier under the top-of-the-market receiver offers given to draft mates.
“It’s by no means dangerous to have safety,” Jeudy mentioned. “You do not actually understand how the season goes to go. Of course I wished to wager on myself however as a receiver, there’s loads you have to rely upon.”
IN JEUDY, THE Browns acquired a participant they coveted relationship again to the draft. A staff supply mentioned Cleveland valued Jeudy’s elite route working reverse Cooper and noticed his extension, averaging $17.5 million a 12 months, as a discount for a participant together with his pedigree. But because the Browns’ new-look offense with quarterback Deshaun Watson floundered, Jeudy had little influence. In the primary seven video games of the season, he averaged 38 yards per recreation and caught one landing go.
Late within the third quarter of the Browns’ Week 7 recreation towards the Cincinnati Bengals, some extent at which Jeudy had seen zero targets and simply watched a go sail errantly over his head, he walked to the sideline and slammed his helmet into the bench in frustration. Days later, Jeudy apologized for not channeling his anger in a extra productive method.
“No motive,” Browns coach Kevin Stefanski mentioned when requested why Jeudy caught only one go. “He ought to contact the ball.”
The Browns’ commerce of Cooper bumped Jeudy to the No. 1 broad receiver spot. And with quarterback Jameis Winston taking on for the injured Watson, who posted the bottom QBR within the NFL earlier than tearing his proper Achilles tendon in Week 7, Jeudy has gotten the constant alternatives he is desired since coming to Cleveland.
The Browns collapsed within the fourth quarter of a 35-14 loss to the New Orleans Saints in Week 11, however Jeudy delivered his most efficient recreation of the season: a six-catch, 142-yard efficiency that included an 89-yard landing. It was Jeudy’s first 100-yard recreation since Week 18 of the 2022 season.
Four days later in Cleveland’s upset win over the Pittsburgh Steelers, Jeudy caught all six of his targets for a game-high 85 yards, together with a number of robust receptions amid the snowy components. They have been the sorts of catches he was criticized for not making in Denver.
“We know he can wiggle open, he can run away from folks,” Stefanski mentioned, “however when you may make these contested catches, you grow to be a really troublesome man to cowl for the protection.”
UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND soccer coach Mike Locksley, who was the offensive coordinator at Alabama in 2017 and 2018, known as Jeudy one of the gifted route runners he is seen.
“Jerry has the flexibility to run routes that appear like paintings,” Locksley mentioned.
But as Jeudy educated final offseason, he wished to be a extra full — and constant — receiver, in keeping with Locksley. That included engaged on his conditioning to make sure that he might play the high-level snaps required of a prime possibility.
“He is embracing the whole a part of being a soccer participant,” Winston mentioned. “And I feel Jerry Jeudy is among the greatest soccer gamers I’ve performed with.”
Jeudy has recorded at the very least 70 receiving yards in 4 straight video games, the longest streak in his profession. He leads the Browns in targets (78), catches (45) and receptions (645) and is on tempo for profession highs in all three classes.
“The attributes of a No. 1 receiver is to get open, have the ability to make performs after the catch,” Winston mentioned. “Look at Jerry Jeudy. If you have a look at Jerry Jeudy and also you see the issues that he does, he will get open. He runs after the catch, and he fights for the soccer.”
On an growing older roster that has dissatisfied with a 3-8 document this season, Jeudy’s emergence has been a constructive. The Browns’ hope when bringing Jeudy in was that he might develop right into a prime passing possibility behind Cooper and Pro Bowl tight finish David Njoku, which turned a necessity with the departure of Cooper. And Jeudy’s hope is that his latest surge is an indication of issues to come back.
“As a receiver, to get in a groove, you have to constantly get the ball,” Jeudy mentioned. “The final couple weeks, they have been giving me alternatives. …Now that I’m getting alternatives, I’m getting right into a groove and a rhythm. Now, it is solely up from right here.”
