Sean Keeler: Jerry Jeudy on Broncos Country boos: 'I wanted to hear it louder'
Published in Football
DENVER — Jerry Jeudy is a boo-liever in Broncos Country again.
“I loved it,” the Cleveland Browns’ WR1 and 2020 Broncos first-round draft pick said late Monday of the catcalls from Denver fans while his old team pulled out a wacky, wild 41-32 win. “They only boo you when they know that something’s gonna happen, and there’s something great in you.”
He was great, wasn’t he? Jeudy finally played his way into the Broncos record book on Monday Night Football. He finally lived up to all that hype.
Only it happened while he was wearing another uniform, repping another team, another town. His 235 receiving yards broke Terrell Owens’ 16-year-old NFL record for the most by a league wideout against his former franchise.
Dude was motivated. Laser-focused. Consistent. On a national stage, the former Alabama wideout was everything Broncos Country wanted him to be. And wasn’t.
Not here, anyway.
The Broncos version of Jeudy, the one traded away this past March, drifted like a leaf in the breeze. One step forward. Three steps back. Flashes of absolute game-changing, field-flipping brilliance. Followed by weeks of anonymity, peppered by pouting and social-media finger-pointing.
“A lot of fans didn’t really rock with him because they don’t feel like he was productive here,” his old teammate, Broncos safety P.J. Locke, told me after the game. “But, hey, it is what it is. He’s balling out now, you know, and that (Broncos time is) in his past.”
Jeudy always had that dawg in him, as the cool kids say. He just needed a match for the pilot light. A reason to give a darn.
The guy who almost single-handedly sent Sean Payton circling another parking lot came out on the Browns’ first play of the evening — a 44-yard jaunt over the middle — and never left.
The Broncos hit Week 13 averaging 2.6 “explosion” passes (20 yards or more) allowed per game. Jeudy had three of them, all by himself, by the first three minutes of the fourth quarter — a groove helped by no Riley Moss and all that hate.
“Did you hear the boos every time you touched the ball?” a reporter asked Jeudy.
“I heard it,” he replied. “That was a lot of boos, huh? It sounded like it. What that means is, a lot of catches, too.”
Nine, to be exact. Revenge was a dish served lukewarm, though, as Broncos Country got treated to the full Jameis Winston Experience — 497 passing yards, four touchdowns and three picks, two of which were returned for scores.
“I’m mad it was against us,” Locke, Jeudy’s teammate from 2020-23, offered with a smile of grudging admiration. “(Jerry isn’t) supposed to do that against us. I’m happy for him, though … he’s coming back to the Broncos and I know he had a little chip on his shoulder.”
Yeah, just a little.
No. 3 — he’ll always be No. 10 to us — told longtime Cleveland reporter Tony Grossi last week that he wanted to “go back up there and whip their (backsides).
“… (Four) years is a long time to be patient. I’m not going to say they didn’t get me the ball for (four) years. Some years I had a few drops, like my rookie year. Other years there were a whole bunch of circumstances I can’t control.”
We could argue revisionist history all day, but what would be the point? Broncos Country was promised CeeDee Lamb and Justin Jefferson and got inconsistent football instead. As my colleague Troy Renck pointed out over the weekend, Payton vs. Jeudy was one divorce that looks as if it’s turned into a win for both sides.
Jeudy’s putting together a Pro Bowl season with Winston, the QB partner he’s always wanted.
The Broncos are putting together their first playoff team since 2015.
“I don’t have (anything) towards them,” Jeudy said of his old squad. “At the end of the day, it is football. It’s competitive, everybody will have (that) juice when it’s time to play. Everybody wants to be great. Everybody wants to win.
“That’s it, that’s all. No beef, nothing. Everybody just wants the best thing for themselves.”
Locke, meanwhile, spoke of Jeudy late Monday with the affection of a long-lost brother, and old college roommate.
“He actually had to block me on a play and I stepped on his toe,” the Broncos defender recalled with a laugh.
Locke then leaned over to the bag between us and showed me one of his shoes, pointing to the cleats on the bottom.
“Because I’ve got these seven-stud cleats, and that hurts,” he continued. “So my feet (got) set into the ground, and I stepped on him with my toe.”
“Dang, bigfoot,” Jeudy told Locke.
“Yeah, don’t be trying to block me,” Locke replied. “Go run some routes, bro. You ain’t supposed to be blocking. You ain’t (some) crack blocker, man.”
Locke laughed again.
“But I also told him I’m super-proud of him,” the Broncos safety said. “I’m happy for him. He’s showing it … and I think he’s one of the best receivers in the league.”
He’s still one of the best when it comes to hamming it up. Jeudy’s celebration and Nestea plunge into the end zone after toasting Levi Wallace in the third quarter was pure theater. Jeudy sensed the moment and put it in a camel clutch, egging on the Empower Field faithful like a veteran pro wrestling heel.
“I heard the boos,” Jeudy explained, “and I wanted to hear it louder.”
They only boo when they care. When it hurts. When something great finally comes out, but for somebody else.
“Hey, man, look, (those) emotions were running high,” Locke said. “It’s Monday Night Football, he was balling.”
He was breaking records. Just … not the way John Elway drew it up four years ago.
“God had a different plan for him,” Locke said. “He still did it. Just in a different way.”
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