Broncos roster review: wide receiver Jerry Jeudy

The Denver Broncos will have a dangerous passing corps in 2021. Where will Jerry Jeudy fit into that?

The Denver Broncos had arguably the best wide receiver in the 2020 NFL Draft fall into their laps with the 15th overall pick. Jerry Jeudy has the look of a complete wide receiver and his rookie campaign did little to dampen those lofty expectations.

Jerry Jeudy’s profile

Height: 6’1”
Weight: 193 lbs
Age: 22 years old
Experience: Second Season
College: Alabama

The good

As someone who has been watching the Denver Broncos play games for decades, I don’t think I’ve ever seen any wide receiver during that time with the route running ability that Jeudy has. Maybe Eddie McCaffrey or Wes Welker come close, but Jeudy is straight disgusting and he was only a rookie.

The frustrating part for me when watching film and possible for Jeudy himself was how often he was wide open after breaking some ankles and having the quarterback never look his way for the easy big play. Whether or not you believe Drew Lock is going to turn the corner and be a quality NFL quarterback, you have to acknowledge the simple fact that he played very poorly last season and struggled to see the field in any consistent way.

If that changes in 2021 or if Teddy Bridgewater is the starting quarterback and doesn’t suck, we could see Jeudy have a breakout season.

The bad

You can’t find a huge Drew Lock fan who doesn’t talk about Jerry Jeudy’s hands. So let’s talk about Jeudy’s hands. According to PFR, Jeudy had 10 drops last season. This is a high number if you look at it from the top, but I dove in to find out if it was a consistent problem or one bad game.

He had three of his 10 drops in the firs two games, which I would forgive for being rookie jitters. Outside of that, it was literally just one bad game – the six drops he had against the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 16. How he did he follow that horrendous game up? Oh just a 5 catch, 140 yard game with a touchdown.

The real bad was quarterback play. Let’s take a look at his targets on passes he didn’t drop, eh?

It’s odd to me how people can’t forgive Jeudy’s one bad game, but can easily overlook the consistently poor throws and decision making from Lock game after game after game. I really hope we see massive improvement from Lock this year if he wins the starting job in training camp.

Final thoughts

Unfortunately, I used a good portion of this write up to talk the poor quarterback situation in Denver. It is what it is. The better the quarterback the play, the better a good wide receiver will do statistically and the better the team will do overall. They won 5 games in 2020 and quarterback is the main reason why.

Even with the poor quarterback play in 2020, Jeudy finished with a very rookie-friendly 52 catch, 856 yard season. Just imagine what he could do with a guy like Aaron Rodgers who would rarely miss a wide open receiver…