Jerry Jeudy has wild presser, talks poor stats and possible trade

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — There is little doubt that the 1-5 start is eating away at the Broncos. And for Jerry Jeudy, who had the best six-game stretch of his career late last season, he’s in a particularly rough spot.

A training-camp hamstring injury. The offseason saw trade rumors galore.

“About two years,” Jeudy said when the subject of trade rumors and how long he’s heard of them arose.

And those rumors persist.

“It don’t affect me at all, because at the end of the day, I’m still gonna be the player that I am,” he said. “I know what I can do, and I know what I’m capable of. So, trade me or not trade me, it don’t matter, because at the end of the day, Imma still be me.”

And for Jeudy, to be himself means being pushed to an edge by the accumulation of defeats. Never in his football life had he experienced such poor team-wide results — an 18-38 record overall since the Broncos drafted him.

“It’s always frustrating losing. Nobody want to lose, you feel me? Losing is the worst possible thing that can happen. So, that’s very frustrating,” he said.

Further, takes a team to make the kind of consistent plays to ensure success. And wide receiver is ultimately a dependent position, reliant upon other factors to ensure the football arrives. Some things are within the receiver’s control — including drops. But plenty aren’t.

Jerry Jeudy: “You could be open, but the line don’t do their thing, the quarterback didn’t do the job, the OC don’t put you in a — it’s a whole lot of stuff that we’ve gotta go through as a receiver to be successful. …”

pic.twitter.com/h9G4nYXFGZ

— Andrew Mason (@MaseDenver) October 19, 2023

“I mean, as a receiver, it’s a lot of people you’ve gotta depend on,” Jeudy explained. “You could be open, but the line don’t do their thing, the quarterback didn’t do the job, the OC don’t put you in a — it’s a whole lot of stuff that we’ve gotta go through as a receiver to be successful.

“So, I can’t really just — at the end of the day, I’ve gotta do what I do at the end of the day. People can say, ‘Oh, look at the stats, look at this, look at that.’ But the eye in the sky don’t lie. So, that’s what it is.”

The stats aren’t great – 222 yards on 20 receptions so far this season, good for an 11.1-yards-per-catch average. He’s still looking for his first touchdown of the season.

So, beyond the numbers, what did the eye in the sky reveal from last week?

“I think that’s what y’all need to do,” Jeudy replied. “Go watch the film instead of looking at the stats. Go watch the film and see what it do.”

Indeed, if you look at the Broncos’ failed fourth-and-3 last Thursday night, Jeudy has a point. He’s open just past the sticks; a quick, precise throw would have moved the chains. The chances for yardage after the catch would have been minimal with defenders in the area, but it was a makeable connection.

So, there were chances.

Jeudy did acknowledge what comes with being in the spotlight as a former first-round pick. That scrutiny began in 2020, hitting a peak when a slew of drops plagued him during a late-season loss at Los Angeles. But Jeudy improved his drop rate considerably in the years that followed.

“I’m a first-round pick, so people have high expectation of me. And I have high expectations, too. But at the same time … I don’t want to say, ‘playing to that standard,’ because I feel like I’m doing what I can do. Doing what I can control,” Jeiudy said. “So I feel like, just, when you’re not playing to that standard, people are gonna talk bad about you — especially when you’re losing. When you’re losing, people are definitely going to talk bad about you.”

Meanwhile, trade rumors continue to swirl.

“I block all that out, man. I know how my coaches feel about me. I know how my teammates feel about me,” Jeudy said. “All these people that have got their opinions are outsiders that have never been in a locker room,  never seen me practice, never seen how this [stuff] really operates. Everybody that’s outside, I just ignore them, because they don’t know what really be going on for real.”

But what is real is this: Jerry Jeudy is frustrated, and three-plus years of defeats have exacted a toll.

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