Broncos WR Jerry Jeudy Owns Up to 'Unacceptable' Drops vs. Chargers
"Never" before had this happened to Jerry Jeudy, and the Denver Broncos' first-round rookie could not pinpoint how or why he let slip through his fingers an unconscionable five passes in Sunday's narrow loss to Los Angeles.
“Just the plays I was supposed to make—I just dropped it. ... I looked it in. I was looking in slow motion, looked it in, I just couldn't bring it in," Jeudy told reporters after the 19-16 defeat, which dropped Denver to 5-10.
Jeudy, who not long ago was sub-tweeting his coaches over a lack of activity, got his cardio in against the Chargers, leading the team with a whopping 15 targets — the most of any Broncos wide receiver since 2017. He caught just six of them for 61 scoreless yards.
The No. 15 overall selection wasn't red-flagged for drop issues at Alabama, yet his hands couldn't be more unreliable, particularly in clutch situations. Among his five recorded (seven unofficial) drops were a would-be touchdown and a had-to-have deep shot with 35 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter. Assuming the latter backbreaker never happens, the Broncos are setting up shop in Chargers territory, down only a field goal.
Jeudy wanted this. He begged for it. He got it.
And blew it.
“It definitely came to me. Like I said, I've just got to make plays," he said. "Nobody stopped me. I was open. I’ve just got to finish. I beat myself today.”
Jeudy's drops — a repeating issue this season — killed a Denver offense that totaled 396 yards, including 264 air yards from quarterback Drew Lock, who completed 24 of 47 attempts and threw two interceptions, with zero touchdowns. Lock's stat line obviously would have looked better, not to mention the result of the game likely would have been different, had his (temporary) WR1 simply held on to the football.
"Like I said, sometimes drops happen. Like I said, I watched the ball come in, it just dropped," Jeudy said. "I just got to focus on the next play. It just happened too many times today. That's unacceptable.”
But rather than resent, the young signal-caller could relate to what Jeudy is experiencing, the mental frustrations and ever-present fan criticism, the lows of a dog-eat-dog business. They like you when you're good. Maybe they love you. But, boy, do they despise you when you're bad — and Jeudy was bad.
Authentic advice followed.
"I told him that you're one of the most talented guys I've ever been around and you're one of the most talented guys in this league," Lock said. "You're going to play for a really long time and you're going to have days like this because of how good you are and how many chances you're going to get to go out and catch the ball, you have to let it go. You have to go out there because, you never know when there's 30 seconds left, and you might be able to have the ball in your hands to win the game and then all those drops are forgotten about. I told him that he's just too good to hang his head and too good to be upset. There's a lot of opportunities for me to hang my head this year and it's all about how you respond how you get back up and I know Jerry has been so good to this point that this might be one of the first times he's struggled. It takes a guy that's struggled a few times here and there to maybe go up and say something him."
In an ironic twist, Jeudy will wrap his roller-coaster rookie campaign (at home) in Week 17 against the Las Vegas Raiders and fellow first-round wideout Henry Ruggs, chosen before Jeudy at No. 12 overall. Ruggs also had a tumultuous year, albeit for different reasons, but he isn't being branded the B-word for it. Nor are the Raiders challenging Ruggs to get better ... or else.
The Broncos, however, did issue that challenge.
“He's got to come back from it—[it] could be a defining moment in his career," head coach Vic Fangio said. "He's got to come back, have a great week of practice, catch a bunch of balls, and then show up on Sunday when the balls are thrown to him, he’ll catch it.”
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