The Cleveland Browns, yet again, spent the Saturday before the start of free agency trading to improve their wide receiving corps.
The Browns will be acquiring receiver Jerry Jeudy from the Denver Broncos with Cleveland sending a fifth- and a sixth-round pick in this April’s draft back to Denver, a person with knowledge of the deal told the Beacon Journal, part of the USA TODAY Network.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter was the first to report.
The trade can’t be official until the new league year begins on Wednesday at 4 p.m ET. The free-agency negotiation period starts Monday at noon.
The exact picks the Browns will send to Denver are No. 135 and No. 202 overall,. They had two picks in each of those rounds, so they will maintain No. 155 and No. 205.
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The Browns still have five picks overall in the draft: Those are No. 54 (second round), No. 85 (third round), No. 155 (fifth round), No. 205 (sixth round) and No. 243 (seventh round).
The trade can’t be official until the new league year begins on Wednesday afternoon at 4 p.m ET. The free-agency negotiation period starts Monday at noon.
Two years ago, it was on the Saturday before free agency that the Browns agreed to the deal with the Dallas Cowboys to acquire receiver Amari Cooper. To get that deal done, they sent Dallas a fifth-round pick, then swapped sixth-round picks.
The Browns also used a trade with the New York Jets last March to bring in Elijah Moore in exchange for their second-round pick. Jeudy now joins the two fellow South Floridians at the top of the receiving corps in Cleveland.
Jeudy comes to Cleveland while playing on his fifth-year option, which carries a $12,987,000 price tag. He was originally the 15th overall pick in the 2020 draft out of the University of Alabama.
The 6-foot-1, 193-pound receiver played in 16 games last season, starting 11, with 54 catches for 758 yards and two touchdowns. It’s one of only two seasons in which Jeudy has played 16 games over his first four seasons, the other being his rookie year.
Jeudy missed a combined nine games in 2021 and 2022, although he only missed two in the latter year. He posted career highs in 2022 with 67 catches for 972 yards and six touchdowns.
For his 57-game career, Jeudy has caught 211 passes for 3,053 yards and 11 touchdowns. He has had 24 career drops, according to Pro Football Focus.com, but half of those came in his rookie season.
