One Broncos Player Named to 2023 NFL All-Breakout Team
Expectations are high for Denver Broncos fourth-year wide receiver Jerry Jeudy. The added levels of scrutiny are due to his explosive finish to the 2022 season and the arrival of head coach Sean Payton in Denver.
Even the national media has Jeudy in its crosshairs as a bonafide breakout candidate in 2023. Jeudy was listed as one of three wideouts on Bucky Brooks' 2023 NFL All-Breakout Team. Here's what the NFL.com analyst wrote:
The route-running specialist has a chance to emerge as the Broncos' featured pass catcher in Sean Payton's offense. As a versatile playmaker with the potential to create mismatches from the slot or out wide, Jeudy gives Payton a versatile chess piece to deploy all over the chessboard. Given the creative play caller's success with Michael Thomas, Brandin Cooks, Marques Colston and many others over the years, Jeudy could finish with 100-plus catches as Denver's No. 1 option.
Jeudy finished last season as Denver's leading receiver, rotating 67 catches for 972 yards and six touchdowns. The momentum with which Jeudy finished the season was considerable, totaling 37 receptions for 523 yards and three touchdowns in the final six games.
Extrapolated over an entire 17-game season, that level of production would have seen Jeudy approach north of 100 receptions, 1,500 yards, and 17 scores — the stuff of which NFL wide receiver dreams are made of.
Russell Wilson went from force-feeding targets to Courtland Sutton to making use of Jeudy's rare ability to separate from defensive backs with his route-running prowess and explosive foot speed.
The Broncos exercised Jeudy's fifth-year option in early May. The talented wideout will earn $2.681 million this coming season, but that money will skyrocket as a result of the fifth-year option to a fully-guaranteed $12.987M in 2024.
Now, Jeudy has to maximize all this momentum and convert what has always been an enormous amount of potential into consistent production on the field. While nothing is guaranteed, with Payton in town, Wilson will likely improve by leaps and bounds, which means Jeudy's numbers should, too, so long as he's able to fend off the injury bug.
In 49 possible games, Jeudy has appeared in 41 of them, with 33 career starts. The injury bug claimed a good chunk of his second year, and he missed two contests in Year 3.
The Broncos selected Jeudy at No. 15 overall in 2020 out of Alabama. He ended his first NFL season with the second-most receptions and receiving yards ever by a Broncos rookie, with 52 and 856, respectively.
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