It only took the Broncos two games to realize their Jerry Jeudy trade mistake

In the thick of the offseason, it felt like the Denver Broncos had an adequate plan if not an overabundance of players at the wide receiver position. Even after the team's slightly surprising decision to trade away Jerry Jeudy to the Cleveland Browns, it seemed as though the Broncos had some decent things in the works through a number of moves.

The team signed Josh Reynolds in free agency. They went and drafted two receivers including trading up for Oregon's Troy Franklin, who had a 2nd-round grade on the Broncos' draft board. They brought Tim Patrick back on a revised one-year deal.

Fast-forward to present day, and it's clear after only two games that the Broncos made a major mistake by trading away Jerry Jeudy, who was arguably the most talented player they had at the position previously.

Denver Broncos clearly miss Jerry Jeudy early in 2024 season

I recently wrote about the fact that the Broncos trading Jeudy is one of the top three offseason moves right now that the team should be regretting, and it just looks worse the more you dwell on it.

The Broncos got a couple of late-round picks for Jeudy, who almost immediately signed a new contract with the Cleveland Browns. When he signed that deal, it was a little bit easier to be dismissive of the trade because there was no indication that the Broncos were going to be willing to give him that deal.

But maybe they should have.

The fact that neither George Paton nor Sean Payton drafted Jeudy probably loomed larger than we know (or maybe it didn't) as the team dumped him in a contract year to the receiver-needy Browns. Unfortunately, we're now looking at the receiver-needy Broncos while Jeudy has thrived in his first two games with Cleveland.

He's doing all of the things through two games in Cleveland that we haven't seen from the Broncos' receiver room hardly in two games as a whole. Jeudy is getting open quickly, he's making plays after the catch, he's making tough catches in contested situations, he's scored a touchdown, and he's just generally out there maximizing his targets and moving the chains.

It's a long season and there's still plenty of time for a Broncos receiver to emerge (heck, maybe even two -- but let's not get greedy). With that said, it is looking like the Broncos may have traded the wrong receiver.

Not only was the team getting offers for Jeudy this offseason, but they were also getting offers for Courtland Sutton. Although Sean Payton diminished the idea of the Broncos getting an offer of a 3rd-round pick in a projected Brandon Aiyuk three-team deal with Aiyuk going to the Steelers, it's still significant that this team has allegedly turned down multiple trade offers for Sutton while accepting a relatively big bargain of a deal from Cleveland's perspective for Jeudy.

To make this all worse, Sean Payton noted in the offseason that one of the biggest reasons why Jeudy was traded was to pave the way for more offensive snaps for Marvin Mims. Through two games, Mims has played 12 and 9 offensive snaps, respectively.

It's looking more like an egregious trade than anything else. The decision to trade Jeudy in a contract year may have been financially motivated, but Sean Payton seemed a bit more bullish on Jeudy last year when he publicly called out the quarterback for not seeing Jeudy come open on a number of plays in a number of games. It just feels weird how the whole thing transpired and that the Broncos traded Jeudy in a fire sale type of move.

Until guys start making plays, we're having to live with Lil'Jordan Humphrey being one of the most impressive receivers on the team. With all due respect to Humphrey, that speaks volumes to the quality of the receiver position right now. Even if Josh Reynolds is one of the most heavily targeted receivers, he would probably have been just the fourth or fifth option in Detroit last season.

Trading Jeudy is looking like a mistake, and many called it out from the start. But now we are seeing the Broncos "find out".