Denver Broncos: Jerry Jeudy needs to get the ball a lot more
By Jordan Lopez
The Denver Broncos play the Los Angeles Chargers tonight on Monday Night Football in a must-win game. A win will put this team back to .500 and be a major confidence boost for the organization going forward this season.
In order to get the win tonight, the offense needs to be exponentially better and the one way they can improve tremendously is by feeding Jerry Jeudy the ball A LOT more.
The lackadaisical rhetoric around the criticism Jeudy absorbs every week has become tiresome. The explanations and reasoning for it have no clear evidence nor validity towards the claim either. Whether the criticism is him not “performing up to standards” or dropping the ball, fans still don’t understand the truth behind all of this.
While looking back at the film (not only this season) of Jeudy, it is more than clear that he is open in almost every passing play. This is not an exaggeration either.
Before all the haters come out and start saying their part just know this. The best part about this particular argument is that there is evidence behind it. The film doesn’t lie and it’ll show fans that Jeudy should be getting the ball a lot more and that means his production will be a lot better too. Adding to the fact that the Denver Broncos offense will skyrocket with Nathaniel Hackett and Russell Wilson.
Russell Wilson NEEDS to feed the ball to Jerry Jeudy a lot more to find success in the Denver Broncos offense
It’s evident that the only receiver Wilson trusts right now is Courtland Sutton. This has its positives and negatives when looking at it. The positive is that Sutton is finally getting to show the world how great he is and rightfully so.
The negative, which outweighs the positive, is Wilson has another great and underappreciated receiver in Jeudy that does not get the ball as much as he should. Especially with how dominant his route running and speed are.
The offense is struggling mightily and the solution is quite simple and easy. Feed Jeudy the ball more!
The drops were a concern of the past and not the present. Everyone still complaining about that issue is just blinded by the fact of his numbers and production. While it does have a little correlation with each other, it is not as simple as you may think.
For all the fans out there that argue the fact that Jeudy should not get targeted a lot because he’ll just drop it anyway, here is a news flash. Jeudy doesn’t even lead the team in drops. It’s Wilson’s favorite target that he “trusts” more.
Jeudy has also had 17 catchable passes out of 29 targets. That is unacceptable from Wilson because Jeudy creates separation from his defender more times than not. The connection is not there yet between the two but it should not discourage Wilson to keep targeting him.
It is literally on film for people to watch. The passes he has gotten are either behind him, ahead of him, or just not catchable at all. Will this improve? Of course, it will, but Wilson needs to make a point of emphasis to feed Jeudy the ball more.
Every great wide receiver drops the ball every once in a while. For instance, Deebo Samuel leads the league in drops with seven, and Ja’Marr Chase, CeeDee Lamb, and Sutton are tied for second with four.
The point is that fans should stop with the absurd criticism of Jeudy and the truth is Wilson needs to target him more often. Young superstar receivers like Chase, Lamb, and Justin Jefferson are finding so much success with their teams because not only are they getting wide open, their quarterbacks are targeting them nearly 30% of the time.
The 3-5 targets that Jeudy gets every game don’t cut it and are more than unacceptable at this point. He gets open more often than other great receivers too. Of course, the production is not going to be on par with the other young superstar wide receivers when he is only getting a handful of targets every game. Especially when the targets are not even accurate.
If Jeudy were to get targeted as much as they did, not only would the fans stop complaining about their insane takes on Twitter, this Broncos offense would be immensely better.
This Denver Broncos offense needs to turn it around tonight and one way to do that is by targeting Jerry Jeudy more. Once this offense finds success with him, it’ll open up a lot more options within Hackett’s scheme.