Browns WR Jerry Jeudy continues his winding road career

Last season, the Cleveland Browns lost 14 games. This season, they are about to end up with another year of double-digit losses.

The offense has been horrible. Of course, part of the reason is that the offensive line went from five good starters to one. Only seven-time Pro Bowler Joel Bitonio remains the lone starter from the Week 1 lineup. Cleveland has started three quarterbacks, which remains a position of constant flux. Instability at the offensive line can kill this side of the ball.

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Running back has also been an issue with injuries to rookie Quinshon Judkins. TE David Njoku has always had his share of being hurt and missing games.

And while the offensive line is easily the worst position group on the entire roster, right behind that is the receiver room. With this description, do we state the truth or give some kindness to this room?

If the offensive line is horrible, the receiver room is atrocious. Bad. Appalling. Terrible. Horroroso.

And it all starts with veteran Jerry Jeudy.

Problem area

Jeudy is the Browns’ undisputed WR1. There isn’t another body in the receiver room that anyone would consider to be the team’s Number 1 receiver. Not even close. If Jeudy were to leave or end up on IR, the team would simply be devoid of a #1 receiver with a bevy of #2 and #3/4 guys running routes on the field.

Jeudy is it for Cleveland. Yet, his production numbers don’t identify him as such this season. 100 targets with less than half that number of actual catches (48). That alone screams yikes. 585 total yards gained. Already having completed 16 games, that is just a 36.6 yards per game average. Is this a misprint?

Two touchdowns? His cap hit this season is $7.979 million. That’s $3.899 million per touchdown catch. Where is the application for that job?

30 first down conversions come out to be about two a game. 161 YAC. And it’s not like he isn’t playing much. He has played on 875 snaps, which is 84.87% of all offensive plays.

And Jeudy is durable, so he has played in every game this year, which means all these production stats are not like he has missed a ton of games with an ailment or two. Nope, he is playing and starting.

So, what is the deal with Jeudy?

Last year, he was one of the few rays of hope on a roster that lost 14 games. Jeudy had 1,229 yards with 90 receptions and four scores. He had 57 first-down conversions for an anemic offensive attack. He averaged 72.3 yards per game and had 145 targets while playing in every game. For his efforts, he was named to his first Pro Bowl.

Jeudy posted a Pro Football Focus (PFF) grade of 73.5 last year, rating him the #38 receiver in the league out of 133 WRs who were graded.

Some may point to the fact that the majority of games on this year’s schedule have been manned by a rookie quarterback, either catching passes from Dillon Gabriel or Shedeur Sanders. But last season, Jeudy was snagging passes from four different quarterbacks. And yet, he had production and won personal acclaim.

An alarming issue

One problem area with Jeudy has been the drops. Currently, he is ranked #1 in the league in pass drops with 10.

The hyper-fixation on him is because he may be a WR2 trying to fill the role of a WR1. But his drops are what is the most alarming thing about his role as a pass catcher, and that’s about it. Right now, he has tied the number of drops he had in 2024. Are 20 drops in two seasons a lot? You bet it is, just with the fact that players are paid to catch balls.   

He has regressed to the point where Cleveland would have a difficult time moving him to another roster. Perhaps another receiver will need to take his place as WR1 and allow him to be the secondary option, like when Amari Cooper was the clear-cut Number 1 guy.

He had a sideline incident with QB Sanders, with whom he has almost no chemistry. He had a bad fumble against the Las Vegas Raiders. Against the San Francisco 49ers, he was wide open but slowed down for the pass. He literally dropped down to a jog when the DB put pressure on him. He was blamed for an end zone interception that bounced off his chest against the Chicago Bears.  

Can everyone agree that his reduced performance is something that we can all live with since he’s dealing with rookie QBs? Or, not?

Remember when Steve Smith called him JAG (just a guy) while with the Denver Broncos? Just because a player like Jeudy has one exceptional year, that doesn’t mean he’s now good. And besides, the season before the Browns traded for him, Jeudy had just 758 yards on 54 receptions with two touchdowns. So, it’s not like they got Jerry Rice from the land of a bad offensive environment.

Some media outlets have accused Jeudy of making “business decisions” while on the field and not giving maximum effort. He definitely hasn’t developed any sort of rhythm with any of the quarterbacks this year.

He is a great route runner and still has his speed, which makes him a deep ball threat.

So, what is the deal?

Deserved downfall

The facts seem to be that Jeudy is an average receiver that the Broncos used a first-round pick on, then got four mediocre seasons out of him before shipping him off to Cleveland. The fact that the Browns got him for a fifth and sixth-round draft pick shows that Denver wasn’t happy and was glad to get rid of him, selling his rights for cheap.

This year, Jeudy’s PFF grade is 58.3, a reduction of almost 20 points since his Pro Bowl season from one year ago.

The Browns’ offensive line is a bunch of brandy second-teamers and practice-squad guys who have been thrust into starting roles because of numerous injuries to this group. What does this affect? Everything on this side of the ball. Including passing production.

Cleveland is ranked #28 in total passing yards. They are near the bottom of every passing grouping. Name the category, then scroll down to the bottom to save time.

This year, that has been Jeudy’s life, playing for a team that absolutely sucks at throwing the ball. 45 sacks tell the same story. No quarterback for the Browns has the time to survey the field for long and then deliver good throws before being killed. Look at the high number of interceptions Sanders has thrown. He is being hit frequently and just does not have the luxury to look around for open receivers.

Jeudy is one player who has endured the inability of the offense to give any quarterback the time to throw. That is just a condition of bad play. Look at the Minnesota Vikings’ receiver Justin Jefferson. He was once a Top-3 guy, but now that the Vikings can’t block anyone, he is ranked #17 and has fallen off everybody’s list of the best receivers in the game.

And all across the Browns receiver room, it is the same story – a lot of disappointment. Remember when Ced Tillman returned, and there were stories where he would end up the dark horse on this offense? So far, a catch here and there, and that’s it. Isaiah Bond was this stud rookie who would light it up? Minimal production. Malachi Corley has produced in one game and disappears the next. Recall all of the Jamari Thrash sleeper stories?

The NFL is a passing league.

All of this translates to Cleveland should be targeting a blue-chip receiver in this year’s April draft. The Browns lack a true vertical threat on offense. The Browns should be picking around the sixth pick, and two receivers should be available: Carnell Tate of Ohio State (6’-3”, 195 pounds) and Arizona State’s Jordyn Tyson (6’-2”, 200 pounds). Then, at the bottom of the first round, Cleveland can concentrate on snagging an offensive lineman.

Going forward

Jeudy’s three-year $52 million deal, which he signed when he was traded to the Browns, is a tough pill to swallow right now. He had one really good year, followed by a season that usually gets a player cut.

He is almost untradeable. Nobody wants a mediocre guy who is getting paid handsomely to not produce. And the amount of dropped passes at the most inopportune times is a huge crutch.

In next year’s training camp, will Jeudy become a “bubble player”? Remember, he is just 26 years old. His $6 million option bonus for 2026 is already fully guaranteed, so there’s that. An early March trade would represent a cap loss of around $350,000.

Right now, Jeudy is averaging 12.2 yards per reception, the lowest of his career. His numbers are on par with his second year in the league, when he only had five starts and played in 10 games. The Browns still trust Jeudy, and he is involved in the game plan each week. With 100 targets already, the offense is throwing him the ball.

Getting passes from rookie quarterbacks has been part of his problem. Another is the emergence of another rookie, tight end Harold Fannin, who has become a favorite of current starting signal-caller Sanders. That has taken away quite a few looks away from Jeudy.

Add to the fact that Browns GM Andrew Berry has a bad track record of bringing receivers to the roster. Up until this year, he had drafted a receiver in every draft: David Bell, Michael Woods, Anthony Schwartz, Thrash, Tillman, and Donovan Peoples-Jones. Because none of these guys panned out, he then resorted to trading for established veteran help such as Elijah Moore, Cooper, and Jeudy. He also brought in free agents such as Diontae Johnson, JoJo Natson, Ja’Marcus Bradley, Jaelon Darden, Kadarius Toney, Mike Harley, and Marquise Goodwin.

Except for Cooper and the one year from Jeudy, none of these guys shook fear into the lives of defensive coordinators and crippled the Browns without a multi-talented receiver group in any game. Covering the WR1 one-on-one with a safety over the top has taken the receivers out of the game basically.

The last time the Browns selected a receiver in the first round was in 2016 when they took Corey Coleman of Baylor with the 15th pick. It is almost a given that Cleveland will choose a young buck at receiver early in this year’s NFL draft, and they can continue to build a team around him.

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The question may be: Will the Browns be considering whether to keep Jeudy as a good option for the team going forward?