Jerry Jeudy trade grades: Browns come out winners in deal for Broncos’ former first-round pick

The Cleveland Browns have a new wide receiver. According to CBS Sports lead NFL Insider Jonathan Jones, the Browns sent two late-round draft picks to the Denver Broncos in exchange for Jerry Jeudy. The picks heading to Denver are fifth- and sixth-rounders. 

Jeudy was the No. 15 overall pick and second wide receiver off the board in the 2020 NFL Draft, which also included stars like CeeDee Lamb (17th), Justin Jefferson (22nd) and Brandon Aiyuk (25th). Jeudy failed to live up to lofty expectations during his time in Denver, dealing with multiple injuries and then trade rumors during the latter portion of his tenure. 

Jeudy joins a Browns pass-catching corps as the presumptive No. 2 receiver behind Amari Cooper. Cleveland took a similar shot on an underperforming young wide receiver last year by trading for Elijah Moore, but he and Deshaun Watson didn’t really click (as was the case with almost of all Cleveland’s non-Cooper receivers). Jeudy will have a chance to rebuild his value alongside Watson, Cooper, Moore and David Njoku in new offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey’s offense.

Below, we grade the trade.

Browns: B+

This is a good low-cost flier for the Browns. They did not give up much in the way of draft capital for Jeudy, who is a talented but nonetheless frustrating player. Still, trying to see if they can tap into something that the Broncos didn’t is an idea that has a lot of merit. The only thing holding this from getting into the “A” range is Jeudy’s fully guaranteed $13 million salary, which is an overpay if he performs like he has to date in his career. And for a team with the Browns’ salary cap situation, that could be a little dicey.

Broncos: D-

Denver has reportedly been dangling Jeudy in trade talks for multiple years and comes away with only a pair of late Day 3 picks? Yikes. The only reason this isn’t an “F” is because the Broncos do need to clear a bunch of cap room and if the first four years of his career were any indication, Jeudy probably wasn’t going to produce at the level of his 2024 salary, so trading him is a decent way to accomplish that.