There is a time for teams to remain busy for the upcoming 2019 College Football. In the rare window of free availability, most players and coaches take time to travel or discover themselves. It has been a busy offseason for Jerry Jeudy. The star Alabama Crimson Tide wide receiver found the time early this Summer. Jeudy has been vocal on social media outlets in his career.
Busy offseason for Jerry Jeudy
This past week, Jeudy posted a video of his workout with Oakland Raiders wide receiver Antonio Brown in their home state of Florida. Both Jeudy and Brown were shown together practicing receiving drills and running multiple routes. This is the kind of overall publicity that college athletes need.
Jeudy is the college equivalent of Antonio Brown
Since Alabama become a consistent 10-win team in 2008, the Tide have had high-velocity wideouts year after year. Jeudy has become one of the top receivers in the nation going into his junior year. Much like Julio Jones, Amari Cooper, and Calvin Ridley was for the Tide. Last season, Jeudy accounted for 68 receptions and 1,315 yards (10th highest in the nation) for 14 touchdowns (tied for third highest in the nation). According to Pro Football Focus, Jeudy has contributed a 125.1 passer rating when targeted by his quarterback. This amount of success in his first year as a starter earned him the 2018 Fred Biletnikoff Award. This award is given to the top wide receiver in college football each season. He beat out finalists from Oklahoma State, Tylan Wallace, and former UMass Minutemen Andy Isabella.
Jeudy became one of the top wide receivers last season based on the rare combination of top-level speed, excellent route running, ability to create separation from the defensive backs, and great hands. These attributes gave Brown at least 100 receptions and 1,250 receiving yards in each of the last seven seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Brown’s speed, route running, and separation made him one of the most efficient receivers in the league for the past couple of seasons. The comparisons to Jeudy and Brown is comparable with the receiver skills, size, workload, and dominance in games. Jeudy had shown incredible progress even after his award-winning season last year.
Jeudy’s active offseason publicity will go beyond college
Like it or not, college athletes are not being paid for their on the field contributions. For most of these top college athletes, publicity can be a huge boost as it can boost their NFL Draft stock. When the 2018 College Football season ended, Jeudy got his early 2020 NFL Draft stock as high as a top-five overall selection. Within the past few weeks, Jeudy’s stock has skyrocketed after his workout with Brown. NFL Draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr. has him rated as the number one prospect overall. Kiper depicted Jeudy as the most athletic and explosive player potentially in the 2020 Draft. Working out with a top-level NFL athlete like Brown will help his performance as a wide receiver.
A big contributing factor in winning awards and receiving recognition is the consistent publicity the player gets. Jeudy has attracted a great deal of attention this past season and this offseason. Time will tell whether he generates the same input as last season and become the top pick in the 2020 NFL Draft. This is if Jeudy decides to forgo his senior season. The publicity he is getting will ultimately provoke the matter that he is getting the starlight for free outside his college degree. Watch for pay-for-play advocates to exercise their cases of these college-NFL workouts in the eyes of the NCAA. Jeudy could be the prime example of this clause.
