Denver Broncos: Should we be concerned with Jerry Jeudy’s rookie season?
Jerry Jeudy has experienced the ups and downs of an NFL rookie.
The Broncos went on the offensive in the early rounds of this past spring’s NFL draft, literally, taking wide receivers in each of the first two rounds. In round one, the team obtained the player many felt was the best overall wide receiver in the class, Jerry Jeudy.
But his rookie season has left much to be desired through 12 games.
Jeudy has just 38 receptions on the season and he has only found the end zone twice. Most troubling, perhaps, has been the fact that over the last two games, he has just one reception and has been targeted a total of five times.
Now of course, in one of those games, Kendall Hinton was the Broncos’ quarterback. That’s excusable, but last week against the Kansas City Chiefs, a game in which Drew Lock attempted 28 passes, he looked for Jeudy just four times.
That should set some alarm bells off, especially when the team’s current No.1 wide receiver is on the shelf with injury.
Jeudy has shown his ability to run great routes this season and he has made some explosive plays, but he has gone over 100 yards receiving just one time.
We can point to the fact that he’s a rookie catching passes from a second-year quarterback in a new offense. We can point to the fact that a global pandemic forced team’s to drastically cut down their offseason programs, including no preseason games.
All of that makes sense, but other rookie wide receivers have found more success than Jeudy, Six rookie wide receivers have caught more passes on the season.
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When you throw in the fact that Jeudy has been targeted 82 times in the passing game, his catch percentage is a mere 46.3 percent. That means he doesn’t even come down with half of the passes thrown his way. That’s not all on him, but it is worth noting.
Of the 117 receivers with at least 35 targets on the season, only two have a worse catch percentage than Jeudy, according to NFL Next Gen Stats. If that’s not a concern, what would be?
Because of all of the twists and turns of the 2020 season, it’s acceptable to give Jeudy a pass on this season. But it certainly hasn’t been great and it’s something the team should be focused on correcting this offseason as the investment in him was high.
Is it the offense system put in place? Is it the fact that he and Lock need more time to develop some continuity? Or is it just a rookie wide receiver trying to adapt to the professional game?
Those are all fair questions to ask.