Broncos found No. 1 WR in Jerry Jeudy, need to exercise fifth-year option

Well, that was a fun way to end an awful season.

The Broncos were triumphant over the Chargers on Sunday, finishing a brutal year with a 31-28 victory that gives the team a little boost going into a very interesting offseason. Interim head coach Jerry Rosburg leaves a winner, after getting Denver’s football team back to a respectable level the last couple of weeks.

How did it happen and what were the biggest takeaways? Let’s dive into it with our 17th and final edition of the Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

The Good

It was the Jerry show at Empower Field at Mile High. And while the Rosburg story is a nice one, the Jeudy story is more meaningful. The former first-round pick out of Alabama finished his third NFL season with a bang, hauling in five catches for 154 yards. He added three rushes for 39 yards. It took yet another coaching change, but Jeudy is finally being used effectively.

And Jeudy ended the year with close to 1,000 yards receiving and six touchdowns, while finishing with a splash. He had the three TD game at home against the Chiefs, and was the lone bright spot of the Christmas Day disaster in Los Angeles, catching six passes for 117 yards. Jeudy played his best football in a Broncos uniform over the last couple of months.

This means Denver would be crazy to not pick up his fifth-year contract option, a choice they have to make later this spring. According to Over the Cap, a popular NFL website, that decision will cost the Broncos about $13 million in 2024. He’ll play under his rookie deal next year. That’s a no-brainer, especially to guarantee one more year of team control before inking a lucrative extension. Jeudy’s now WR1 in Denver, and he and QB Russell Wilson have obvious chemistry.

The Bad

There wasn’t a ton of bad, considering the Broncos surprisingly played against a very good Chargers starting offense most of the afternoon. Locked into the No. 5 seed in the AFC, many thought Los Angeles head coach Brandon Staley would bench his best players. That didn’t happen until late, and it bit Staley in the butt, as WR Mike Williams hurt his back and was eventually carted to the locker room.

However, the Broncos defense did give up eight catches for 102 yards and two touchdowns to wideout Keenan Allen. He’s a darn good player, but that’s still too much for a secondary that had rough moments against top wide receivers this season. Think about what Davante Adams did in Denver in the middle of the year, including the walk-off OT winner.

The defense was absolutely the strongest unit of the season for the Broncos, but they weren’t their sharpest on Sunday. Still, they forced key turnovers when needed, including safety Justin Simmons causing two separate fumbles. He’s a turnover creating machine, and did it again against L.A. to go along with his six interceptions this year.

The Ugly

The whole season was ugly, so it was nice to finish on a high note where there’s not a lot to complain about. Alas, the Broncos were so bad, Nathaniel Hackett was fired after 15 games. He had one of the shortest head-coaching stints in NFL history. That’s frankly, embarrassing.

Denver lost three games in overtime and was constantly messing up on national TV. The Broncos won’t have to worry about that next year, as network executives won’t give them many primetime slots. The team lost the trust of the football world and fans around the country, and will have to earn it back in 2023.

There’s no other way to slice it: 2022 was a massive failure all around. No one could have imagined this 5-12 nightmare, Hackett getting the boot, or Wilson playing the worst football of his career. But there were glimpses of hope in the last two games without Hackett around. And to cap an ugly year, hope is the best thing we’ve got.

***