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Jeff Legwold, ESPN Senior Writer
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — There may be no better testament to the current state of affairs for Denver Broncos wide receiver Jerry Jeudy than a nine-minute span of last Sunday’s win over the Los Angeles Chargers.
In an ideal Broncos world, Jeudy’s stat line should have read something like five catches, 113 yards and a touchdown. But because of several mistakes, he finished with two receptions for 16 yards.
“He’ll get his touches,” Broncos coach Sean Payton said of what it would take to get Jeudy going. “The key is winning, right? He had a chance to make a play or two and he made a few plays early on. I’m not as worried about it.”
Sunday’s second quarter was a three-dimensional exercise in frustration for Jeudy and the Broncos. In the final 9:29, Jeudy did not stay in bounds on what would have been a 49-yard reception, lost a contested pass opportunity with Chargers cornerback Asante Samuel Jr. that would have been 43-yard reception and before the quarter ended, Jeudy had a 5-yard touchdown reception overturned on review because he didn’t toe-tap to keep his feet in bounds.
At one point Payton, as the Broncos’ offense went to the sideline, stopped Jeudy in a brief, terse exchange about a route.
Jeudy, the Broncos’ first-round pick in 2020 and the 15th player selected, continues to be a football riddle for the Broncos (7-6), who face the Detroit Lions (9-4) on Saturday (8:15 p.m., NFL Network). On one hand, many defensive coordinators in the league believe he is one of the most explosive route runners they face, so Jeudy gets open — a lot.
But he doesn’t turn those opportunities into catches or touchdowns nearly as often as his peers do.
“He gets the ball thrown to him because he’s f—ing open, he’s a tough cover, but we tell our guys you can frustrate him, bother him, get him throwing his hands up,” said one defensive coordinator the Broncos faced this season.
“He’s working,” said Broncos wide receiver Courtland Sutton. “He works, he’s a competitor … we all want to see ourselves go out and be as successful as possible.”
Through 13 games this season, Jeudy has 42 receptions on 63 targets for 507 yards and one touchdown. He finished his second season (2021) without a touchdown, and while he had six touchdowns last season, three of those came in one game — Week 14 against the Kansas City Chiefs.
He’s routinely busy given he’s second on the team in targets and was second last season. He led the team in targets in his rookie year. But last season, when the Broncos finished last in scoring, is the only year Jeudy has led the team in receptions or touchdowns.
For his career, he has turned 59.9% of his targets into catches. This year, he’s tied for 70th in the league with Jaylen Waddle at 67.7%. However, Waddle has 315 more receiving yards and two more touchdowns in a Miami Dolphins offense that also includes MVP candidate wide receiver Tyreek Hill.
By comparison over the past four seasons, some of the other receivers taken in the first round of the 2020 draft — Jalen Reagor (No. 21), Justin Jefferson (No. 22) and Brandon Aiyuk (No. 25) — all sport career catch rates of 55.6% or more. That’s with Jefferson and his three 1,400-yard seasons at 68% and Aiyuk, now with back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons at 66.7%.
Jeudy’s rate this season may be better than Sutton’s (65.4%), but Sutton is quarterback Russell Wilson‘s go-to in the toughest situations with far higher degree of difficulty. Sutton is also the ultimate closer these days with 10 touchdown catches (tied for second in the league) among his 53 receptions and an unquestioned status as the guy Wilson trusts.
Sutton’s one-handed, fight-off-the-cornerback, touchdown catch was the highlight of Sunday’s win. So much so, even Jeudy had to take note.
“That ain’t nothing new,” Jeudy said. “That’s what he do, day in and day out. You see the best in practice. I’m not surprised, him making that catch, because I always see him do that.”
For his part, Jeudy, who has often sparred with frustrated fans on social media after frustrating days like Sunday, has consistently said, “I can only keep working, keep at it.”
It’s all been part of a tumultuous football season for Jeudy. He was the subject of trade rumors for most of the offseason — which Payton publicly rebuffed on occasion — team sources said the Cleveland Browns made multiple runs at acquiring Jeudy.
“I’ve been able to feel his energy, his juice, the way that he plays this game, he just demands the most out of himself,” Sutton said. ” … He’s not going to settle for being less than the best that he can be … whenever he feels like he’s not up to that standard, he wants to be better, he works to be better.”
With Sutton increasingly getting more and more attention from opposing defense and the Broncos sporting all of 29 catches from the team’s tight ends combined, the Broncos could really use Jeudy for a stretch run that has them in the hunt for their first playoff berth since they played in Super Bowl 50 to close out the 2015 season.
“We’re in a horse race,” Wilson said. “You’ve got to finish the last quarter strong … it’s going to take all of us.”