"Jerry was our guy": Why the Broncos first-round pick was a no-brainer

DENVER — John Elway, Vic Fangio, Matt Russell and the Broncos’ entire personnel department spent months upon months ranking and finalizing Denver’s draft board.

It was all a waste. For the first round, at least.

After the Broncos landed Jerry Jeudy atop their draft board, they could have called it quits, took time off, sat back and waited for the start of the draft on Thursday night.

But in reality, they thought they needed a deeper board than just the star receiver from Alabama because, after all, he was the best receiver in a historically great wideout class. No way he would last until the 15th-overall pick, right?

The Broncos didn’t believe so. In fact, in their prep for the draft, Denver’s brass had Jeudy falling to them in “a lot less” than 50 percent of their mock drafts.

“He was there a couple of times,” Elway said on Thursday night. “But we kind of really worked off our mocks with him not being there and the situation that if he wasn’t there, which direction would we go… So that’s why when he was there we were thrilled.”

Thrilled might be an understatement for what Denver pulled off in the first round.

“Jerry was the No. 1 guy on our board,” Elway said, boldly and bluntly. “So that’s why — for him to be able to fall there, and CeeDee was No. 2 — so for us to be staring at 15 and sit there and look at the top need on our board and we have our top two guys that are still on the board, obviously we felt very comfortable with it.”

The decision wasn’t always as straightforward, however. Leading up to the draft, the Broncos had a week-long internal discussion about whether to take a top receiver in the first round or wait until later in the draft because the depth at the position was exceptional.

John didn’t need to specify how that conversation ended.

“When it came down to it, and Jerry — who we had as our top-ranked guy — when he fell to us there, he was our guy,” Elway said proudly.

As the No. 1 player on their board, Denver did contemplate trading up to ensure they landed the 6-foot-1 receiver. In fact, Elway talked to a few teams about trading up to get an idea of what it would cost. In the end, the Broncos decided to stay put at 15 because they felt like they were “going to get a very good football player no matter what.”

“Obviously wide receiver was our No. 1 goal and it fell that way to where we were able to get that,” Elway said. “We’re just glad Jerry was there and we didn’t have to make the move of going back.”

Defensive lineman Javon Kinlaw went one pick before the Broncos’ selection. However, even a dominant defensive force wouldn’t have changed Denver’s plans. The pick still would have been the back-to-back 1,000-yard receiver from Alabama.

“We were focused on wide receiver to see what was going to happen there and then we had another position that we were focused on,” Elway said, not tipping his hand to what that other position was. “Kinlaw was not in our plans.”

In the past two seasons at Alabama, Jeudy has averaged a whopping 72.5 receptions for 1,239 yards and 12 touchdowns. But the stats weren’t the only reason he shot to the top of Denver’s draft board.

“[What] we liked about Jerry was his route-running ability, his speed, being able to plant his foot and get out of a break, the experience he has and obviously playing in the SEC and plus the production he has had,” Elway explained.

“We met with him in Indianapolis and really liked him and liked his mentality of what he thought about the game of football and how he wants to attack the game of football and it’s important to him. It was very close, but we’re glad that we had an opportunity to pick [him]. Jerry was our guy from the get-go.”

When Vic Fangio scouted the receivers in the draft, he did it with a defensive mindset. He wanted to find who put the most pressure on opposing defenses.

“Any time you can get a receiver that’s hard to cover, that stresses a defense. It’s as simple as that,” Fangio stated. “We think he’s hard to cover. And once he does catch it, he can run pretty good with it after. It’s as simple as that. Can you cover him or not?”

“We’re looking to make our offense a little more stressful to defend,” the head coach added.

On Monday, in his annual pre-draft press conference, Elway stated receiver was, in fact, a need for the Broncos. That need, and burden, on the general manager, has been significantly lifted after Thursday night.

“It’s a big weight off my shoulder and our shoulders,” Elway said with a smile. “Obviously, that was a position of need for us. Not only we needed that position, we needed that to make Courtland [Sutton] better too because, as we saw at the end of last year, they were trying to take Courtland out of the game. We know what a great football player he is. Adding somebody, not only because it was a need, we needed somebody, but it’s also going to make Courtland that much better too.”

Denver didn’t just upgrade their receiver opposite Courtland Sutton; they upgraded their current Pro Bowl receiver by adding Jeudy. All with one pick.

“It’s nice to be able to go to bed tonight knowing that we got the receiver that we coveted,” Elway said at ease.

Landing the top player on their board is just the type of sleep medicine the doctor ordered.