DENVER — As the 15th-overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, wide receiver Jerry Jeudy has carried the weight of lofty expectations throughout his young career.
Over much of his first three years in the NFL, Jeudy long displayed his talent and flashed the production to match it, though it came with some inconsistent stretches. But as the Broncos wound down their 2022 season, Jeudy found his groove, putting together easily what has been the most productive month of his career, and on Sunday in a 31-28 win over the Chargers, he put an exclamation point on the end of the season with a 193-yard performance.
"It feels really good," Jeudy said after combining for 154 receiving yards and 39 rushing yards. "I feel like the coaches did a great job using me and putting me in the right spots to make plays, and I feel like I took advantage of the opportunities they gave me. It feels good."
With at least six targets in each of the last five games, Jeudy has become a focal point of the Broncos' offense — and as a result, he has played some of the best football of his career over that stretch. The wide receiver posted a 73-yard, three-touchdown performance against Kansas City in Week 14, and he has not looked back since, surpassing 100 receiving yards twice in the last three weeks.
"It's been a lot of fun watching him work, watching him have the success that he's had," fellow wide receiver Courtland Sutton said. "The three-touchdown game against the Chiefs, and him almost having 200 all-purpose yards this game, it's been so much fun to be able to watch him do his thing. I've been a Jerry Jeudy fan since we drafted him. ... To watch him go in and do what he did at the end of the season, he definitely eclipsed that potential, and guys know that he is a guy they have to worry about on offense."
Quarterback Russell Wilson found Jeudy on two of his vintage deep shots in Sunday's game — a 57-yard bomb to set up tight end Eric Tomlinson's touchdown, and then another in the third quarter for 50 yards — showing promise for a strong connection between the duo in 2023.
"I thought Jerry Jeudy was special this game and all year," Wilson said after the game.
With 154 receiving yards on Sunday, Jeudy brought his season total to 972 — just 28 yards shy of achieving the 1,000-yard receiving mark for the first time in his career. If he can build on this recent stretch of success next season, the third-year receiver is likely to soar past that milestone in 2023.
To carry this level of success into Year 4, Jeudy noted, all he needs is an opportunity to make plays.
"The biggest thing is just consistency," Jeudy said. "I feel like I was just getting consistent opportunities, and I was just taking advantage of the opportunities. When I did get the ball, I just wanted to make a play every chance I get, so I feel like that's just a mixture of physicality and just wanting to score and wanting to bring that spark to the offense."
While 2022 may not have gone the way the Broncos expected, they will enter the offseason with a budding star to build around.
