Broncos wide receiver Jerry Jeudy can have no excuses in 2022

Denver Broncos wide receiver Jerry Jeudy should be in store for a breakout season in 2022. 

The key word there is should. Jerry Jeudy has failed to make much of an impact in his first two seasons in the NFL and the former first-round draft pick has left much to be desired. Of course, many Denver Broncos fans still feel he can be one of the league’s best wide receivers and there is still room for that to happen.

But in two seasons, he has shown a bad habit of dropping passes and just not doing much of anything to suggest that he can be elite at a position where there are many elite players.

Excuses for Jerry Jeudy hold up, for now.

There are reasons to defend Jeudy.

He has had Drew Lock and Teddy Bridgewater throwing him the ball. He’s also missed time due to injury as a high ankle sprain suffered in the season opener last year cost him a huge chunk of the season.

In 2022, he will be catching passes from Russell Wilson, the kind of quarterback who makes every player he throws the football to better. If Jeudy can’t live up to his first-round draft status with Wilson, there is a problem.

The 2020 NFL Draft was loaded at the wide receiver position. Going into that draft, wide receiver was Denver’s biggest position of need and the team chose to select one in each of the first two rounds. But take a look at these statistics from wide receivers drafted that year:

Career Statistics

CeeDee Lamb, Dallas Cowboys: 153 receptions, 2,037 yards, 11 touchdowns

Jalen Reagor, Philadelphia Eagles: 64 receptions, 695 yards, 3 touchdowns

Justin Jefferson, Minnesota Vikings: 196 receptions, 3,016 yards, 17 touchdowns

Brandon Aiyuk, San Francisco 49ers: 116 receptions, 1,574 yards, 10 touchdowns

Tee Higgins, Cincinnati Bengals: 141 receptions, 1,999 yards, 12 touchdowns

Michael Pittman, Indianapolis Colts: 128 receptions, 1,585 yards, 7 touchdowns

Laviska Shenault, Jacksonville Jaguars: 121 receptions, 1,219 yards, 5 touchdowns

Chase Claypool, Pittsburgh Steelers: 121 receptions, 1,733 yards, 11 touchdowns

And now, take a look at these stats:

Jerry Jeudy, Denver Broncos: 90 receptions, 1,323 yards, 3 touchdowns

K.J. Hamler, Denver Broncos: 35 receptions, 455 yards, 3 touchdowns

Both of those guys combined don’t have as many receptions as Lamb, Jefferson, Higgins or Pittman do by themselves. We can point the finger at “bad QB play” all we want, but guys like Aiyuk and Shenault have not exactly had top-level QB play thus far either.

For Jeudy, he has dropped passes that have hit him right in the numbers and his poor statistics are not due to just having bad quarterback play. But this year, that can’t be an excuse.

Wilson had both Tyler Lockett and D.K. Metcalf playing at a Pro Bowl level. In years past, he has made guys like Doug Baldwin a Pro Bowler and had guys like Jermaine Kearse and David Moore making plays.

So Jeudy, a player the Broncos selected ahead of several wide receivers that have performed far better than he has, must step up and make plays this season.

Wilson will have Courtland Sutton and Tim Patrick to help spread the ball around to, but Jeudy needs to become the team’s X-factor. He needs to win with this elite route-running ability and breakaway speed that we have heard about when he was drafted. He has shown those things in brief spurts, but he must stay consistent.

Lock, Bridgewater and injuries can be blamed for his lack of success thus far. That’s fine. But it stops now. Starting this year, those excuses go away.