Sources: Jeudy likely out at least several weeks

Jeff Legwold, ESPN Senior WriterAug 24, 2023, 02:13 PM ET
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ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — It’s been a bit of a cruel summer for the Denver Broncos‘ wide receivers, and the bad injury luck at the position continued Thursday when Jerry Jeudy was carted off the practice field with a right hamstring injury.

“It’s a hamstring,” Broncos coach Sean Payton confirmed after practice. “We’ll get an MRI and see where he’s at with it.”

Jeudy is expected to miss at least several weeks, multiple team sources told ESPN. The Broncos open the regular season Sept. 10 against the Las Vegas Raiders, 17 days from Thursday.

Jeudy suffered the injury running an end-around in team drills during a joint practice with the Los Angeles Rams. Jeudy quickly grabbed his upper right leg after the play, was initially treated by the team’s trainers on the field and then was taken to the locker room on a cart.

He held his right leg just above the knee while riding in the cart and could put almost no weight on the injured leg when he was helped into the locker room. The Broncos’ preseason finale is Saturday night against the Rams.

Jeudy is the fifth wide receiver since the start of training camp who might be forced out of the lineup for an extended period. Tim Patrick suffered a season-ending torn Achilles tendon in the first week of camp, KJ Hamler was diagnosed with a heart ailment that is being treated with medication (he was released), and second-year receiver Jalen Virgil suffered a knee injury in this past Saturday’s preseason loss to the San Francisco 49ers and is now on injured reserve.

Brandon Johnson also missed several weeks of practice with a leg injury and returned to practice Thursday.

Jeudy missed three games with an ankle injury last season and had some hamstring troubles in the offseason workouts leading into the 2022 season. He was also held out of some of the Broncos’ offseason work this past spring with a thigh injury.

Jeudy also missed six games with an ankle injury in 2021 to go with another game due to COVID-19 protocols.

He has battled drops some in this training camp, but the Broncos believed he has continued to show more of a comfort level in the new offense. Jeudy and Courtland Sutton had worked the majority of the snaps with the starters in practice since Patrick’s injury.

Jeudy had 37 receptions for 523 yards and three touchdowns over the last six games in 2022, including a career-best 154 yards receiving in the season finale against the Chargers as well as a career-best three touchdowns against the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 14.

Payton said Thursday it was too soon to say how the Broncos would divide the workload in the weeks to come, but rookie Marvin Mims Jr., who missed time on the offseason program and early in camp with two separate hamstring issues, has worked with the starters more and more in recent weeks.