To the surprise of absolutely no one, well-known NFL insider Adam Schefter named Cleveland Browns wide receiver Jerry Jeudy among his five players to watch ahead of the league’s Nov. 10 trade deadline on Monday morning's episode of the Pat McAfee Show.
“The Browns have Denzel Boston, KC Concepcion, these young receivers,” Schefter said. “If there’s a contender — let’s say Kansas City. They don’t get Tyreek Hill. He goes somewhere else. Or another team doesn’t get Tyreek Hill. You call Cleveland. You offer some kind of pick, get Jerry Jeudy.”
Trade speculation has been swirling around Jeudy since the 2026 NFL Draft, when the Browns used two of their first three selections on wide receivers.
But with Cleveland sitting at 3-1 atop the AFC North, and the majority of Jeudy’s 2026 salary already paid out, per Over the Cap, general manager Andrew Berry and the Browns suddenly have a dilemma on their hands.
Jerry Jeudy may be too valuable to the Browns to justify moving at the NFL trade deadline
Jeudy profiles as the type of cheap, veteran player a contending team would covet ahead of the trade deadline, so it’s not surprising that he made Schefter’s list along with Khalil Mack, Marvin Harrison Jr., Tony Pollard, and Josh Sweat.
What Schefter isn’t accounting for, though, is the value Jeudy brings to the Browns’ depth chart. If you remove him, Cleveland’s top three wideouts would be the two rookies and a 2025 undrafted free agent in Isaiah Bond.
It’s not surprising that on the first play of the Browns’ biggest drive of the season to date — tie game, home against Pittsburgh on Thursday Night Football with 1:36 remaining in regulation — quarterback Deshaun Watson chose a tough throw over the middle to Jeudy. The veteran made a tough catch in traffic for a 17-yard gain to get the drive started.
Three plays later, Watson went back to Jeudy at the sticks for a key first down that set the ball up at the Pittsburgh 40. Andre Szmyt later drilled a career-long 56-yard field goal with 10 seconds remaining to win the game.
Head coach Todd Monken admitted afterward that Jeudy has been demoted to more of a part-time role on offense. That just made his overall buy-in even more impressive on Thursday night.
“I’m so happy for Jerry,” Monken said. “And it probably wasn’t enough for a game ball, but for a guy that really isn’t starting now, he’s a rotational player — that’s so cool for him. And it’s not easy. Not easy for a veteran player to have young players kind of beat him out. But we needed it in a big time, and that was a big-time catch.”
How the Browns fare in October could drive their Jerry Jeudy decision
Cleveland will play five games prior to this year’s trade deadline. Two of them will be against the Jets (1-3) and Titans (0-4). One of them will be a rematch with the Steelers, who just lost to the Browns and will be playing a game in Paris this week prior.
If the Browns are sitting above .500 at 6-3 or 5-4 entering their Week 10 home game against the Houston Texans — a team that’s off to a surprising 0-4 start, by the way — should they really be selling off a valuable depth piece like Jeudy who’s already been paid about $12 million this season in the form of a fully-guaranteed option bonus?
Jeudy’s situation felt a lot more straightforward back in April, when the Browns were breaking in their new highly-drafted receivers, and Berry was insisting that Jeudy remained the team’s “bell cow.”
It became clear during training camp, however, that Cleveland’s top two receivers were Boston and Concepcion, in that order. Monken refused to call Jeudy’s new role a demotion ahead of Week 1, but once Boston began running as the Browns’ primary boundary receiver, the team hasn’t looked back.
None of that makes Jeudy a slam-dunk trade candidate next month. It would be one thing if he was unhappy or openly requesting a trade for a higher-volume role.
But if he’s working well with Watson and remains fully bought-in on Monken’s vision for the offense, there’s really no reason for Cleveland to trade the veteran for “some kind of pick,” as Schefter put it.
The Browns already hold 11 picks in the 2027 draft. If they’re still firmly in the AFC playoff hunt when the calendar flips to November, it could take a lot more than Schefter is hinting at for them to justify moving on from Jeudy next month.
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