Shurmur Reveals Antidote to Jerry Jeudy's Drop Issues: 'You Can't Play the Game Anxious'
Denver Broncos rookie wideout Jerry Jeudy has been credited with 10 drops on the season. Five of them came in last week's loss to the Los Angeles Chargers. Only Pittsburgh's Diontae Johnson has more drops.
Jeudy should have been credited with seven drops last week, by my count, and adding insult to injury, he (almost) single-handedly cost the Broncos a chance to win the game, or at the very least, compete. With something very obviously eating at the talented first-rounder, what can be done to cure Jeudy of this virulent case of the 'dropsies'?
Offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur has the antidote and it starts between the ears.
“I think you just have to work on him," Shurmur said on Thursday. "Whether he caught every ball or dropped every ball, your job as coaches is to correct it and move on, because you cannot play the game anxious and you have to keep playing."
Shurmur is pointing to the mental/emotional constitution of the player. He brought up a player being 'anxious' when discussing both Jeudy and Drew Lock and how it leads to disjointed and unfocused production.
So, in essence, when Shurmur says the coaches just have to "work with him", that implies also the task of figuring out how to ease his mind and reach him mentally. The best coaches, though, are also expert sideline psychologists.
"Let's go back to last week's game," Shurmur said of Jeudy. "He obviously dropped some balls, but at the very end, he had a chance to make it all right by catching the last one. It could have been a walk-off touchdown or put us in position to make kick."
Yes, indeed. Jeudy's drop down the left seam with 30 seconds to go, no timeouts, and trailing by a field goal was the dagger that finished the Broncos in L.A.
"They have to just keep battling through it and the work that's required to do it needs to be done," Shurmur said. "Anything that you're willing to work at, you can get better at if you have talent, and these guys have talent. So, he just needs to understand that there's a lot to learn at this level. He had 15 targets the other night—some rookies would be happy to have that in a full season."
No doubt. Despite Jeudy's Twitter tantrum a few weeks ago after the Broncos' Week 13 loss in Kansas City, he's received the lion's share of the targets in the offense. Sitting at 106 on the season, the fly in the ointment hasn't been targets; it's been receptions. Jeudy's target-to-catch ratio is horrid. He's only caught 44.3% of his targets while totaling 47 receptions for 716 yards and two touchdowns.
Part of that poor target-to-catch ratio is on Drew Lock. But the bigger onus falls on the player himself. Jeudy entered the league as one of the most profiecent route runners in the game but that has not served him or given him an edge because of his drops. It doesn't matter how open a guy gets if he ultimately drops the pass.
So, part of the brief of Shurmur and WRs Coach Zach Azzanni is helping Jeudy to recognize that he still has a lot to learn in order to thrive in the NFL. That, again, points to the 'sideline psychologist' aspect of these coaches' purview.
But if Coach Azzanni could reach the two-time Pro Bowler and decade-long NFL veteran Emmanuel Sanders three years ago and help him understand that there's always room for more knowledge, perhaps he can do so again with Jeudy. The good news is, Jeudy has received 741 snaps this year and all those live-bullet reps and trial-by-fire experience can serve as a launching pad going into Year 2. If he humbles himself and opens up to the distinct possibility that he doesn't know everything about being an NFL receiver.
"There's a lot to be learned by all these reps that he's getting," Shurmur said of Jeudy. "He's a terrific young man and he's going to work extremely hard. I think some of those things that happened along the way—he's done some really good things this year and as they get older, and they work harder at it, they become more consistent."
Shurmur closed with an emphasis, once again, on the coaches' responsibility of being psychologists and counselors, especially to young players.
"Our job as a coach is to have the hard conversations with them but be positive with them and encourage them to do the work, and then have the success and then build the confidence," Shurmur explained. "That's certainly where it's at. Sometimes the public wants to consume the fact that we're throwing chairs, hollering and screaming, and doing all that. That may be the case, but it's something that happens behind the scenes and I really do feel like you just have to be encouraging and try to help them improve."
The Takeaway
Jeudy's antidote to the drops is to get his mind right (no, I'm not talking about popping a Valium pre-game), lose all the anxiety, and open himself up to the coaching expertise he's receiving daily. That, combined with his considerable talent and well-known work ethic, will allow the 2020 first-rounder out of Alabama to take a quantum leap forward when the Broncos return to the field in 2021.
Follow Chad on Twitter @ChadNJensen and @MileHighHuddle.
