Copyright Heavy.
If the Browns were 6-2 coming out of the bye week and Jerry Jeudy was struggling to get targets and catches, maybe there would be no frustration. But the fact that the team is 2-6 and Jeudy was all but an invisible man in the Week 8 loss to the Patriots heading into the bye is plenty frustrating for Jeudy. He had no catches for the first time since 2019, and his two times targeted in Week 8 were the fewest of his career in a game in which he was not injured. Life with rookie quarterback Dillon Gabriel has been tough on the Browns offense in general, but on Jeudy in particular. He has just nine catches for 75 yards and no touchdowns in four games with Gabriel at the helm. Jeudy has taken to employing mental gymnastics as a way to dealing with the lack of touches he has had lately. “It’s frustrating for sure,” Jeudy said on Wednesday. “But I got to go to the next play, you can’t hold that frustration for too long. If it don’t go the right way, I just think, ‘OK, it’ll come the next play.’ If it don’t come the next play, I think, ‘OK, it’ll come the next play.’ You kind of trick your mind in a way.” Jerry Jeudy on Dillon Gabriel: ‘He Is a Competitor’ That’s probably not what a team should want its top receiver–a guy who racked up 1,229 yards on 90 catches last season–doing over the course of a game. Despite that, Jeudy said he does have faith the Gabriel will turn things around for the Browns. Why? Well, Jeudy said, “Just the type of player he is, guy he is. He is a competitor. He comes out here every day and practices, competes and focuses on getting better each day. You’ve gotta respect that.” Still, Jeudy said that the work he has put into practice this year, as much as his impressive resume as a WR1, should persuade Gabriel to find him more. That was Jeudy’s message on Wednesday: “I just worry about doing what I do out there in practice, you know, a feel I let my work show for itself. What I do out there in practice should make you want to give me the ball. That’s how I go about it. I don’t really say too much I just handle my business.” Browns Need Dillon Gabriel to ‘Correct All the Mistakes’ One of the going concerns about Gabriel–and the big reason he was not picked until the third round of last April’s draft–is his height, at 5-foot-11. There are worries that he is not able to see the field as well as taller quarterbacks, but when Jeudy was asked if he thinks Gabriel can see his receivers well enough, Jeudy said, flatly, “Yes.” But there is much that Gabriel can work on heading into the Browns’ back half of the year. “Just assess what he’s done, correct all the mistakes, you know,” Jeudy said. “He will learn from the past games he has started in and he will learn from there.” Browns to Get Jerry Jeudy Involved Early? It would be helpful for the Browns to get Jeudy involved in the gameplan earlier in the game, to establish him as a threat. That did not happen against New England, when Jeudy was not targeted for the first time until the fourth quarter, with the Patriots ahead, 30-7. With Kevin Stefanski passing off play-calling duties to offensive coordinator Tommy Rees, the hope is that Jeudy gets involved more quickly. “As a receiver, it’s very important to get touches early on, get momentum in the game, as a receiver that’s what we look for,” Jeudy said. Asked why that hasn’t happened thus far, Jeudy responded: “A lot of stuff just ain’t going as planned. A lot of stuff that needs to happen right for the receiver can get the ball—it’s got to be the right coverage, it’s got to be the right look. So, there’s a lot of stuff that has to go right and it just hasn’t been going that way unfortunately. Hopefully, it goes right these next few games.
