The Broncos will welcome back receiver Jerry Jeudy on Sunday against Washington after he missed the previous six games with a high ankle sprain.
Possibly.
Following three days of practice, Jeudy sat out all of Friday’s workout.
“He experienced some soreness after working the last few days so we took the conservative route to give him a rest day and a full rehab day rather than be out here,” Broncos coach Vic Fangio said. “But still optimistic (he will play).”
Jeudy remains on injured reserve, but the Broncos have three open roster spots. Fangio answered, “We’ll see,” when asked if Jeudy will be activated Sunday.
On Thursday, Jeudy said: “Very frustrating (to sit out), but now I’m back in action and I’m ready to go.”
The only thing around the Broncos this week that generated much excitement was the potential of Jeudy’s return. The expectations mirror those entering the season, a rookie-turned-experienced-player ready to blast off. The Broncos have only 13 “explosive” catches (gain of at least 16 yards) during their four-game losing streak and require too many plays to reach the end zone (their touchdown drives at Cleveland were 13 and 17 plays). Jeudy is being counted on to change that … if he plays.
“He’ll be very helpful with just his ability to win (his routes),” quarterback Teddy Bridgewater said. “He’s a guy who’s quarterback-friendly. … (Even) if he misses numerous days or weeks, when he’s out there, he just finds a way to get open.”
Because Jeudy remains on injured reserve, the Broncos aren’t required to list his status (out/doubtful/questionable) for Sunday.
Receivers coach Zach Azzanni said after Thursday’s practice that the focus was on Jeudy, “getting back into rhythm, getting back and knocking the rust off mentally and physically.”
The physical rust is known — transferring his side-field, face-no-defenders route-running work to the practice and game fields — but what involves mental rust?
“Mental rust is sitting in those meetings and watching the film and hearing that stuff and maybe not being completely locked into it because you’re not watching yourself on film,” Azzanni said. “They’re not getting the technique (for a specific play) because they don’t have to go out and do it the next day.”
Azzanni said after one play call Thursday, after being slow out of the huddle, Jeudy told him, “I had to process where I was (going), Coach.”
Jeudy was operating at peak efficiency in the Giants game. Moved all over the formation, he caught his seven passes on seven targets.
Thirteen yards (wide left). … Five yards (slot right). … Eleven yards (slot right). … Six yards (slot left). … Seventeen yards (slot right) … And 20 yards (slot left).
Jeudy was injured on his final catch.
“At first, I really didn’t think it was too serious,” he said. “I wanted to get up and try to walk it off — I thought that would make it feel better. But once I put pressure on it, it started feeling kind of weird. Good thing it wasn’t as bad as it looked.”
Once Jeudy began doing individual work, Azzanni took peeks during breaks in practice.
“Every day, I could see him getting better,” Azzanni said. “Once he was able to get out on the grass and out of the training room a little bit, it kind of gave him new life.”
Jeudy was designated to return from injured reserve on Oct. 16.
Fangio said Jeudy was cleared to play Oct. 21 at Cleveland, but the Broncos opted against playing him without the benefit of a full practice. The ripple effect of Jeudy’s return should benefit tight end Noah Fant and receivers Courtland Sutton and Tim Patrick.
“It gives (the opponent) one more really, really good player to defend,” offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur said. “If there’s one, two, three, four, five guys to defend, then they have to make decisions on how they’re going to cover and it might open some other things up.”
Said Washington coach Ron Rivera: “Oh yeah, that kid can run. He’s a guy that we’ve most certainly had the opportunity to go back and look at and pay attention to his speed and his athleticism.”
