Cleveland Browns wide receiver Jerry Jeudy returned to Denver with his mind set on revenge. His team came up short in a 41-32 battle, but he certainly gave Broncos fans a show on Monday night.
Jeudy earned nine catches for a career-high 235 yards with a touchdown in his first game against Denver after the former first-round pick spent four seasons with the Broncos.
"High emotions," Jeudy said. "Like I said before, you always want to beat the team that you used to play for, but we came up short. We have to find a way to finish, find a way to win."
Seemingly any time Jameis Winston needed a big play, he looked Jeudy's way. When the Broncos took a two-score lead early in the third quarter on a 93-yard play, Jeudy immediately answered with a 70-yard touchdown prance.
Jeudy joined Ja'Marr Chase as the only players with multiple 70-plus-yard receiving TDs and they're only players with 200-plus receiving yards in a game in 2024. Jeudy is the fifth Browns player with 200-plus receiving yards in a single game all-time.
"He's a good football player," Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski said. "We were trying to find ways to get him the ball. He's very, very good after the catch, as we saw. He can run every route in the book. That's kind of how we're utilizing him, moving him around. It's difficult to defend when Jerry's able to line up everywhere, and I think that speaks really to his intelligence."
In some ways, it had to be comical for Denver fans to watch Jeudy finally have the type of performance they yearned from him in the four seasons he wore a Broncos jersey. The home crowd mercilessly booed the wideout every time he touched the ball. And yet, it only motivated him more as he taunted the audience after every big play.
Jeudy battled injury early in his career and never had the breakout season Denver hoped for when they drafted him ahead of the likes of Justin Jeffersonand CeeDee Lamb in 2020. He didn't hit the 1,000-yard mark in any season and scored just 11 receiving touchdowns in four campaigns.
When Sean Payton took over, Jeudy's end in Denver appeared near, as he never seemed to find a place in the offense. The Broncos finally traded him to Cleveland this offseason, where he landed a new contract and a boatload of targets. He's exploded since the Browns traded Amari Cooper and Jameis Winston took over for Deshaun Watson. In the last five games, Jeudy has generated 614 receiving yards (122.8 YPG) on 33 catches for an 18.61 yards per catch average.
On Monday, the Broncos attempted to slow him down by matching him against star corner Patrick Surtain II. Denver didn't move the CB with Jeudy when Cleveland put him in the slot -- which Stefanski did liberally to free the wideout.
Jeudy and Surtain lined up against each other on 34 of 57 routes. Surtain allowed two receptions for 20 yards (three targets) versus Jeudy while the rest of the team allowed seven receptions for 215 yards (10 targets), per Next Gen Stats.
It was not a game plan Payton wants to repeat again.
"We were going to match Pat and then the simple slot moving him to the other side," the Broncos coach said. "We have to be able to handle that. It is too easy offensively for us to do that. I'm sure we will look at the tape. We always ask it of the players. When we come back, the same as the coaches, how would we play that game if we played it again? I think that is coaching. It is us always making sure we put our guys in the best position. Again, we made enough plays."
The Broncos won while Jeudy made the record books. His 235 receiving yards broke the record for most in NFL history by a player in a game against his former team (previous: Terrell Owens 213 yards vs. 49ers in 2008).
