Despite drafting two wide receivers in the top 40 picks, the Browns maintain that Jerry Jeudy is still their guy. A Pro Bowler for the team in 2024, he had a much less successful season a year ago. To him, they have added KC Concepcion 24th overall, paired with Denzel Boston at 39. The heavy reinforcements, however, don’t alter how they envision Jeudy’s role—so they claim.
“Zero impact on Jerry [Jeudy], he’s our bell cow”, Browns GM Andrew Berry said after the team took Concepcion and Boston in the draft. “I think with receiver rooms you can have a ball-dominant player or you can essentially build a basketball team with different skill sets. We prefer the second approach. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll take Calvin Johnson if he’s out there. But we feel like we have a nice, well-rounded room with speed, RAC [run after catch], contested catch ability, separation. So, we’re really pleased with the youth and talent in that group”.
A former first-round draft pick by the Broncos in 2020, Jerry Jeudy was acquired by the Browns in 2024. In his first season with the team, he caught 90 passes for 1,229 yards, making his first Pro Bowl. But he only caught 50 for 602 and 2 touchdowns last season, despite playing all 17 games.
The Browns are searching for their answer at quarterback and used the draft to supplement Jeudy at wide receiver. Whether it’s Shedeur Sanders, Deshaun Watson, or somebody else this year, they’ll have more weapons than last year. It’s hard to say how quickly KC Concepcion and Denzel Boston will take to get up to playing speed, but they should certainly be rookie contributors. Even if they missed out on the tight ends they wanted.
It had been a while since the Browns made a serious commitment to the wide receiver position in the draft. Of course, they gave up a significant amount of resources a few years back in the Watson trade. But prior to this past weekend, they had only taken one receiver in the third round, and no higher, since Corey Coleman in the first round in 2016. They have traded for a series of receivers, like Jeudy, but Concepcion and Boston are significant investments and a change of pace for the organization in the past decade.
“I think that we’re going to bring a good mix of explosiveness and having explosive plays after explosive plays”, Boston said of what he and Concepcion can bring together as draft classmates to the Browns’ wide receiver room, with Jerry Jeudy at the head table. “Both of us have generated tons of touchdowns throughout our college careers. So, I think those are the two things for sure you can look forward to”.
Cleveland has not had a top-10 offense since 2007, rarely finishing in the top 20, for that matter. Rampant instability at the quarterback position has been the driving factor, and that hasn’t changed. Of course, coaching incompetence has played a role, as well. But at least now after this wide receiver-heavy draft, the Browns have some weapons to throw to. And they still consider Jerry Jeudy central to that idea—not that Joey Porter Jr. will complain about that.