5 players the Broncos were right to cut ties with after 2023

3. Jerry Jeudy, WR, Browns

The decision to move on from Jerry Jeudy was another move that couldn't have been easy for the team to make, but it was probably the right one.

As much as we all wanted to see Jeudy succeed in Denver as a former first-round pick, he fell out of favor rather quickly with the fan base due to some issues with drops in his rookie season, and seemingly never recovered in the eyes of many. Although it was extremely unfair for Jeudy to carry that reputation every year of his career, there just never seemed to be a great fit for him in Denver.

He was poorly utilized by Pat Shurmur. He got hurt in 2021. He was arguably at his best in 2022 with Nathaniel Hackett at the helm, but his biggest contributions came in spurts and not consistently. It just never felt like Jeudy could get any sort of consistency in Denver.

The Broncos picked up Jeudy's 5th-year option last offseason which is why they were able to trade him to the Cleveland Browns for a couple of late-round picks in 2024. Cleveland not only took a shot on Jeudy this year but signed him to a three-year, $52.5 million extension, the 21st overall contract valuation at receiver in the entire league.

The Broncos were simply in no position to be able to do something like that for Jeudy.