Dynasty Dilemma: Jerry Jeudy

by JC Johnson

Jerry Jeudy was the 15th pick in the 2020 NFL draft out of Alabama. He was the #1 player on my big board coming out. I thought he was going to be the next great PPR fantasy star. He was then drafted by the Denver Broncos, where all young fantasy pass catchers go to die. Destined to waste away their prime in the NFL’s version of a Russian gulag. This article will discuss if you should be cutting your losses with Jeudy, or if rostering him will save his soul from eternal damnation. Dynasty Dilemma: Buy or Sell Jerry Jeudy?

Reasons to Sell

Outside of stating the obvious, Jeudy hasn’t done anything in his first two NFL seasons. His first year was largely wasted by incompetent QB play. His second season saw him miss 6 games with a high ankle sprain after getting off to a good start vs. the G-Men. He never seemed to fully ingratiate himself back into the offense once he returned, and Tim Patrick really stepped up and became that safety blanket to Teddy B that so many of us in the fantasy community thought Jeudy would be for ole Teddy Two Gloves.

Another reason to sell is the competition he has for targets in let’s face it, a very limited passing attack. Courtland Sutton and Tim Patrick just received extensions, Noah Fant and Albert Okwuegbunam soak up targets in the flats, and Javonte Williams and Melvin Gordon have shown they are more than capable of catching the ball out of the backfield. All of this with speedster KJ Hamler set to re-enter the fold after tearing his ACL at the beginning of the 2021 preseason. 

Jeudy recorded the 2nd highest drop percentage in the NFL his rookie season (although we know drops don’t necessarily correlate to reduced fantasy production) and has also failed to top 10 PPR PPG in either of his two seasons in the NFL. So he hasn’t even really been a solid flex option for your lineup on a weekly basis.

Reasons to Buy

The talent is so blatantly there. It has been shown over the back half of the season that Jeudy is the alpha WR in this offense. You can see it in Sutton’s production. He’s relevant when and only when Jeudy is not on the field. Jeudy is routinely recognized by his peers,

including all pro WR Davante Adams as one of the best route runners in the NFL.

Jeudy as a rookie saw the highest percentage of uncatchable targets in the NFL. It’s every game essentially you see him continuously win his route and he cannot get an accurate pass to be thrown his way. 

With a new offensive regime coming into Denver with head coach Nathaniel Hackett, I believe Jeudy will be used in a Davante Adams type role. One where they get him in the slot and give him a lot of field to work with and truly utilize his extremely balanced repertoire of route running skills to win and move the ball down the field. 

The Verdict

I think you’re at the point in Jeudy’s career where he’s at his absolute floor value wise. He’s in the basement, he’s in the bin of $1 movies that used to line the main aisle of Target’s electronics department. Jeudy is so out of style you go to Goodwill and shop

for him ironically. You wear him around like you’re a hipster in Williamsburg, Brooklyn drinking an IPA at your favorite artisanal mustard shoppe. Jeudy is being drafted after Chase Claypool, Amon-Ra St. Brown, Brandon Aiyuk, Amari Cooper, and Rashod Bateman. Give me Jeudy over all of them. What I hope happens is Denver finally gets a competent QB. The worst case scenario which is entirely possible is they keep playing with a mediocre QB, but Hackett finally does what Shurmur was incapable of doing. They use Jeudy creatively and get the ball in his hands.