With the acquisition of Jerry Jeudy, the Cleveland Browns now boast a receiver tandem made in Tuscaloosa.
The Browns acquired Jeudy from the Denver Broncos in exchange for a 2024 fifth and sixth-round pick. That makes him teammates with Amari Cooper, the former Alabama wideout who set records during his time in the program. Like Cooper, Jeudy made his name at Alabama and parlayed that into being a first-round pick.
One of the first players to reach out to Jeudy after news of the trade broke earlier this week? It was Cooper, of course, which Jeudy said Wednesday “means a lot” to him.
“It means a lot,” Jeudy said, via the team’s website. “In my time at Bama, I got a chance to catch up with Amari and become close friends with him. That’s a guy that I’ve been modeling my game after for a long time and been watching him since I was young. So, being able to play alongside him it’s going to be exciting.”
Jerry Jeudy gets a fresh start in Cleveland
To this point, Jeudy’s NFL career has been far from what most expected when the Broncos selected him 15th overall in the 2020 NFL Draft. In 57 games over four seasons, he’s hauled in 211 receptions for 3,053 yards and 11 touchdowns. He’s yet to break the 1,000-yard threshold in a single season, amassing a career-high 972 yards in 2022. Jeudy is coming off a season in which he came down with 54 catches for 758 yards and two scores.
Whereas Jeudy has struggled to break out, Cooper has continued to be one of the more reliable WR1s in the league. Cooper has seven 1,000-yard seasons to his name, including a career-high 1,250 yards in 2023.
Jeudy is excited for the opportunity to learn from Cooper and hopefully create an exciting 1-2 punch in Cleveland.
“I’ll be having my moments like, I’m about to play with Coop,” Jeudy said. “I’ve been watching him for so long – I don’t think you understand how much time, how many highlights I’ve been putting in, how many hours I put in watching him. So, being able to just be in the same locker room and learn from him, it’s going to be exciting.”
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