BEREA, Ohio — Jerry Jeudy knew the question was coming.
He also was fully prepared not to answer it.
_“Who throws the best ball out there?”_
“You know I’m not going to answer that,” Jeudy said laughing and shaking his head. “I’m not going to answer that.”
Welcome to life as the Cleveland Browns No. 1 receiver in the middle of a four-man, offseason QB competition.
The Browns are largely running dual passing drills to get the most reps for each of the four QBs — Kenny Pickett, Joe Flacco, Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders — who are battling it out for the starting job.
Jeudy looked good no matter who was throwing to him on Wednesday, during the Browns second OTA on-field practice session and the first open to media.
Most of his catches, however, came via Pickett and Flacco because of how Cleveland split up first-team reps.
In the first 11-on-11 session, Flacco went first followed by Pickett. Pickett took first reps in offense-only drills, followed by Gabriel, Flacco and Sanders. In the second 11-on-11 period, Pickett went first followed by Gabriel.
And by all accounts, Jeudy, who is coming off of his first 1,000-yard and Pro Bowl season, made everyone’s jobs easier by catching just about everything that came his way.
“He’s a really easy guy to throw to,” Pickett said of Jeudy. “I think it’s a good play whenever you’re throwing the ball to number 3, so we should keep doing a lot more of that. But no, Jerry’s an awesome guy. He works really hard.
“His communication with the quarterbacks is awesome. Just if he sees something or if I see something, the ability just to have that open dialogue and kind of being on the same page has been great these first two days. I think it has shown.”
Jeudy has had plenty of experience adjusting to different quarterbacks throughout his five-year NFL career.
He played with six different quarterbacks in four seasons in Denver, while the Browns started four different QBs last season: Deshaun Watson (still recovering from his ruptured Achilles), Dorian Thompson-Robinson, Jameis Winston, and Bailey Zappe.
“It is pretty difficult because you want to always build that relationship with a quarterback and have that consistency throughout the years,” Jeudy said. “But as a receiver going through that, you just got to keep working and just, you got to learn how to adjust no matter what. Some situations ain’t going to go as planned, so you just got to figure out how to just keep going and stay on the right path.”
Pickett and Jeudy had an unintentional head start developing chemistry by training together in South Florida even before the Browns traded a fifth-round pick and Thompson-Robinson to the Philadelphia Eagles in order to acquire the QB in March.
"Just building that connection, building that relationship, it means a lot,“ Jeudy said. ”Even off the field, it means a lot because it’s transitioned on the field when it comes to route running and getting the right timing, communicating with each other, talk about what we see on the field."
Jeudy has also become fast friends with the other vet, Flacco, who looked right at home in this practice session and at-ease running the offense.
The two are locker mates and have made quick work of getting to know one another (although neither would divulge what their non-football conversations have been about).
In the first 11-on-11 period, Flacco found Jeudy for a large gain down the left sideline on the first play of the drill.
“He’s exciting,” Flacco said of Jeudy. “I mean, he’s got speed, he’s got route running ability and you can see the look in his eyes. He wants to be good and he wants to do it the right way. So it’s exciting to be around him.”
When Flacco was last with the Browns, leading them on a magical run to the playoffs late in the 2023 season, Jeudy was still a Denver Bronco. The two didn’t overlap in Denver, with Flacco’s lone season there being 2019, and Jeudy not getting drafted until 2020.
But even though they weren’t teammates yet, Jeudy was well-aware of what Flacco was doing his last go-around in Cleveland while paired with former Brown Amari Cooper. The highlight for the duo was a Christmas Eve win in Houston, in which Flacco helped Cooper set a new Cleveland Browns single-game receiving record with 265 yards.
And Jeudy was in immediate agreement when a reporter brought up a quote from Cooper that season, in which the receiver said Flacco throwing the football was “poetry in motion.”
“I see exactly what he means,” Jeudy said. “I see him out there every day so far, so I’m excited for Joe. I’m excited to play with him.”
And while most of his work Wednesday was with the veterans, Jeudy said he’s already been impressed with the work ethics of both Gabriel and Sanders too.
“They know football, they understand the game,” he continued. “That’s what I respect most about them, because they understand the game of football. So they don’t really ask too much questions, but once they do, they must not know. So I tend to give ‘em a tip or two about it.”
There’s a long way to go in this QB battle. And Jeudy is all ears — and hands — no matter who needs him this offseason.
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