Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton sang the praises of wide receiver Jerry Jeudy this week, explaining why the team chose to keep him past the Oct. 31 NFL trade deadline.
“He’s an important part and an important piece of what we’re doing,” Payton told reporters, via Zack Kelberman of Fan Nation. “I don’t think my words prior to the trade deadline were ever, ‘Hey, we’re staying pat.’ It was we’re not the ones to be interviewed. Go ask the people that are purchasing. We’re building and putting a team together and can’t control—we kind of went through this in the offseason with a handful of players, and understandably so. In other words, I get it. It’s harder for us to be the ones speaking on topics like that when we’re not the ones that are involved in initiating any of the contact.”
Many expected the Broncos to trade Jeudy, as the club was struggling mightily early in the season and Jeudy didn’t seem to be progressing.
“When we’re talking about Jerry, shoot, he’s a guy that we think is dynamic. He’s the guy that last week—sometimes it’s a fickle game in that all of a sudden, we’re into the fifth week of the season and [WR] Brandon Johnson has three touchdowns and Jerry doesn’t have one. Sometimes that’s the nature of the passing game, but each week, there’s a lot that goes into what we’re game planning. He played extremely well last week, and we think he is going to be very important for us going forward.”
Jeudy logged two catches for 50 yards and a touchdown in the Broncos’ Week 8 win over the Kansas City Chiefs (Denver had a Week 9 bye). On the season overall, he has caught 27 passes for 336 yards and a score.
The 24-year-old, who played his collegiate football at the University of Alabama, was selected by the Broncos with the 15th overall pick of the 2020 NFL Draft.
Since then, he has actually been a fairly big disappointment for Denver, failing to register a single 1,000-yard campaign. He came close last year, finishing with 972 yards, but Jeudy has actually regressed this season.
Jerry Jeudy has another year remaining on his contract with the Broncos.
Denver is 3-5 and will battle the Buffalo Bills next Monday.
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