Jerry Jeudy, lightning rod for controversy of late, just needs to go

With the Denver Broncos struggling at basically every turn in a season that looks completely over after just six games, it's easy to focus on the negative and what is not working. This past week, wide receiver Jerry Jeudy has been at the forefront of said negativity.

Jeudy is not having the best season on the field, but his season off the field has been horrendous and it's just gone on far too long. Recently, several former NFL players, most of which once played for the Broncos, have been very critical of his play on the field and how much desire he really has to help this team. Jeudy has clapped back each time.

Former Broncos offensive lineman, Mark Schlereth, who is on 104.3 The Fan in the mornings, has spent the past week burying Jeudy. On one episode of The Morning Brew this week, Schlereth stated that Jeudy "has rabbit ears and hears everything, he would rather fight on Twitter than the football field."

He also said that Jeudy (and Courtland Sutton) would not play for his football team because of what he has watched on the field. Jeudy had a response.

On Thursday night, just before the Broncos took the field against the Kansas City Chiefs, former Carolina Panthers wide receiver Steve Smith, who is now an analyst for NFL Network, absolutely lost it when discussing Jeudy.

Now you could certainly view Smith's words as unprofessional. He probably should have chosen a different time and place to vent this frustration. But this goes to show how frustrated these "old heads" have become with Jeudy's childish and entitled antics.

It's one thing when you are Terrell Owens, a player who used to draw the ire of many, including his own fanbase, but he backed it up with incredibly good play. Jeudy doesn't play incredibly good... ever. In that game against the Chiefs, he had three catches for 14 yards.

That's about the kind of numbers Jeudy can be expected to put up on a weekly basis. On the season, he has 20 receptions for 222 yards and no touchdowns. Jeudy has his supporters, and they will point to the fact that he does get open and can't throw the ball to himself. But if he were truly a valuable asset to this team, this is a conversation we wouldn't even be having. And guys like Schlereth and Smith wouldn't need to take to their respective platforms to talk about it, either.

The trade deadline is just over two weeks away. By 2:00 p.m. MT on Halloween, Jeudy needs to have found a new home and the Broncos need to have traded him, even if the compensation is not what they would have originally desired. Personally, I think his trade value is damaged by this and his lack of production this year.

If there is another team out there that feels it can unlock Jeudy's potential and turn him into a Pro Bowler, let them do it. He is not going to be a productive, cooperative member of this team as long as he is more worried about responding to each of his critics than he is making plays to help his team get out of its early-season hole.

Collecting future draft picks needs to be the focus of this team and for that reason, along with everything outlined above, Jeudy needs to be moved before October 31 no matter what.