Broncos Acquire Shutdown CB in Jerry Jeudy Trade Proposal With Panthers
The Denver Broncos are projected to be approximately $30 million over the expected salary cap in 2024. Denver’s 10 big-money earners on the roster are a big reason for this.
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The earnings of these players will add up to $185 million in cap space, or 76% of the cap. As a result, the Broncos can’t be big spenders in free agency as they were the previous year.
Let’s face it: The Broncos need help at just about every position on the roster. The two most obvious and urgent positions of need are quarterback and edge rusher. However, the secondary also needs attention.
The Broncos should consider trading wide receiver Jerry Jeudy for Carolina Panthers cornerback Jaycee Horn. Below is B/R’s rationale:
Broncos receive:
- Jaycee Horn
- 2025 fourth-round pick
Panthers receive:
- Jerry Jeudy
Horn is on the last year of a four-year, $21.1 million contract. Jeudy is on his fifth-year option set to earn $12.987M.
Jeudy’s time in Denver is more than likely up, and it would serve the Broncos well to get as much value for him as they can. But Horn may not be the best option in return.
Although Horn’s career stats are solid (85 total tackles and four interceptions), his injury history is very concerning. He missed most of his rookie year with a foot injury and was limited this past season with a hamstring.
History does not bode well for the Broncos when it comes to pursuing injury-prone players. While Horn may fit the bill of a prototypical cornerback, the best ability is availability.
There are many other reliable free-agent and draft options who can contribute to combatting the heavy passing attack in the AFC West.
Former Broncos QB Teddy Bridgewater is now a high-school coach
Teddy Bridgewater didn’t take long to find a new gig. And for the former Broncos starting quarterback, it’s one that is close to his heart.
The 2014 first-round pick — who concluded his 10-year career last Sunday as a backup for the Detroit Lions in their NFC Championship Game loss to San Francisco — accepted the head-coaching position at his high school, Northwestern H.S. in Miami.
A long-time donor to the program, he will guide his school at a venue that bears his name: Teddy Bridgewater Field.
TEDDY BRIDGEWATER PLANNED TO RETIRE AFTER THIS SEASON
The University of Louisville product revealed his plans to the Detroit Free Press in December, not long before the Lions hosted the Broncos in what proved to be a “>42-17 Detroit romp at Ford Field.
At the time, Bridgewater reflected on a whistle-stop career that wasn’t like the one many expected for him when he became a starter in the first month of his rookie season with the Minnesota Vikings. He guided the Vikings to a division title in his second season; the team and quarterback both appeared en route to big things, even though their playoff run ended when Blair Walsh hooked a game-winning field goal attempt that saw the laces turned in to seal a wild-card loss to Seattle.
As it turned out, that was to be Bridgewater’s only postseason start. He walked to the sideline having completed what appeared to be a game-winning, clutch drive — until Walsh’s misfortune.
But for Teddy Bridgewater, matters turned for the worse eight months later when he suffered a horrific leg injury during a preseason practice. He missed all of the 2016 season and then struggled to make it back in 2017. When he was finally cleared for a return, the Vikings had moved on — first to Case Keenum, and then in free agency to Kirk Cousins. With the injury, they chose not to extend him the fifth-year option — or to bring him back at all.
Bridgewater’s career was never quite the same after that. But it allowed him to reflect.
“I was young and I was trapped in this lifestyle thinking that I was a football player 24-7, and when I got hurt I realized that I’m only a football player for three hours on a Sunday afternoon,” he told the Free Press. “Outside of that, I’m Theodore Bridgewater, so it just put everything into perspective and it really helped me not even have to think about not being a starter (anymore). It’s like, ‘Man, I still got purpose.’ And my purpose is bigger than the game of football. Football is just a platform that I have.”
Imbued with that view, Bridgewater handled the subsequent ebbs and flows of his career with grace. He bounced from the Jets to New Orleans to Carolina to Denver and then, finally, to Miami and Detroit in his final two seasons. At every stop, he left a wonderful impression.
In 2021, he posted the best passer rating for a full-time Denver starting quarterback in seven seasons before a concussion suffered on a frightening collision in Week 15 against the Cincinnati Bengals cut short his campaign. He became the first offensive player to ever win the Darrent Williams Good Guy Award.
And now, with his playing career done, he’ll give back.
