Will the Real Jerry Jeudy Please Stand Up? | 2025 Fantasy Preview

With Jerry Jeudy at the center of this article, I’m sure you’re expecting me to tell you how great he will be in fantasy football in 2025. It’s understandable, right? I mean, he just finished as the WR12 in fantasy, racking up 1,229 receiving yards on 90 receptions. It was his first season with over 1,000 yards, and he’s entering his age-26 season, the prime of his career.

The arrow’s pointing up for Jerry Jeudy… right?!

It is no secret how I feel about Browns WR Jerry Jeudy. If you’ve ever listened to Club Fantasy’s flagship podcast, No Punt Intended, you’d know that I felt he was a reach by the Broncos the year he was drafted, that he was the inferior WR in Denver when paired with Courtland Sutton, that the Browns overpaid for him in their acquisition of Jeudy, that the Browns AGAIN overpaid him when they handed him an extension, and that his 2024 season was an aberration because Jameis Winston can make any bad WR look good.

Since I probably lost you in the middle of that run-on sentence, let’s reel you back in and talk about why you shouldn’t waste time drafting him at his current WR38 ADP, even if that feels like a value after a 1,200-yard season.

Jerry Jeudy 2025 Fantasy Football Outlook

State of the 2025 Cleveland Browns 

Allow me to walk you through the current state of the 2025 Cleveland Browns. They currently have five quarterbacks on the roster. Simple math tells you that if you have five quarterbacks, you have ZERO starting-caliber quarterbacks. They spent two of their 2025 draft picks on QBs, and effectively spent a 3rd pick on a QB when they sent a 5th to acquire Kenny Pickett from the Philadelphia Eagles. In short, the Deshaun Watson experiment was a massive failure.

They also spent two draft picks, a 2nd and a 4th, on RBs Quinshon Judkins and Dylan Sampson, and asked incumbent Jerome Ford to take a pay cut. These moves indicate the team is unlikely to bring back locker room leader and 4-time 1,000-yard rusher Nick Chubb. But if a team spends not one, but TWO draft picks on RBs, it makes you think they want to run the ball quite a bit… right?

The Passing Game History of a Stefanski Offense

When Stefanski fired offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey after one season and promoted TEs coach Tommy Rees to OC, it came with the notion that Stefanski would resume play-calling. And when Stefanski was previously the play caller with a more run-centric approach, WRs were pretty mid in fantasy. 

Year	Player	Targets	Receptions	Rec Yards	Rec TDs	Fantasy Pts	PPG	Fantasy Finish	Games Played	Targets/gm
2019	Stefon Diggs	94	63	1130	6	212.1	14.1	WR24	15	6.3
2019	Adam Thielen	48	30	418	6	114.4	11.4	WR63	10	4.8
2019	Bisi Johnson	45	31	294	3	79.0	4.9	WR86	16	2.8
2020	Jarvis Landry	101	72	840	3	188.0	12.5	WR33	15	6.7
2020	Rashard Higgins	52	37	599	4	120.9	9.3	WR63	13	4.0
2020	Odell Beckham Jr	43	23	319	3	86.8	12.4	WR89	7	6.1
2021	Jarvis Landry	87	52	570	2	133.0	11.1	WR52	12	7.3
2021	Donovan Peoples-Jones	58	34	597	3	109.7	7.8	WR64	14	4.1
2021	Rashard Higgins	47	24	275	1	57.5	3.8	WR114	15	3.1

As the chart shows, the best fantasy finish in the traditional Stefanski offense was Stefon Diggs in 2019 as the WR24. He’s also the only WR to top 200 fantasy points in the more run-heavy play scheme. Another interesting tidbit from this data is targets per game. Only once did a wide receiver exceed seven targets per game. Over a full 17-game season, seven targets/game shakes out to 119 targets. (For reference, that would’ve been 19th among WRs in 2024.)

Now let’s look at the WRs since 2022. That was the year we saw the acquisition of Deshaun Watson and a move towards Stefanski’s attempt at running a spread offense.

Year	Player	Targets	Receptions	Rec Yards	Rec TDs	Fantasy Pts	PPG	Fantasy Finish	Games Played	Targets/gm
2022	Amari Cooper	132	78	1160	9	247.0	14.5	WR10	17	7.8
2022	Donovan Peoples-Jones	96	61	839	3	167.1	9.8	WR39	17	5.6
2022	David Bell	35	24	214	0	45.4	3	WR120	16	2.2
2023	Amari Cooper	128	72	1250	5	227.0	15.1	WR20	15	8.5
2023	Elijah Moore	104	59	640	2	132.1	7.8	WR54	17	6.1
2023	Cedric Tillman	44	21	224	0	44.2	3.2	WR118	14	3.1
2024	Jerry Jeudy	145	90	1229	4	240.9	14.2	WR13	17	8.5
2024	Elijah Moore	102	61	538	1	120.9	7.1	WR67	17	6.0
2024	Amari Cooper	53	24	250	2	61.0	10.2	WR36 (thru Wk6)	6	8.8
2024	Cedric Tillman	49	29	339	3	80.4	7.3	WR90	11	4.5

In every season, a WR topped 14 fantasy points per game. Every season, the Browns had a 1,000-yard receiver. Every season also saw a WR top 7.5 targets/game (128 targets over a 17-game season). In fact, three averaged over eight targets per game (136 over a 17-game pace). Stefanski’s attempt to open up the offense sure was fun while it lasted.

Jerry Jeudy’s role in a run-heavy scheme

The ideal role for Jeudy in Stefanski’s offense mirrors Stefon Diggs from 2019. While Jeudy has bounced around from predominantly a slot receiver to playing more on the outside, Diggs has pretty consistently been an outside guy over his career. And in 2019, during Stefanski’s first year as a play caller, Diggs ran outside on 83% of his snaps. He averaged 18 yards per reception and registered the highest yards per route run (YPRR) of his career at 2.69.

Jeudy ran out wide on 64.1% of his routes in 2024, showing that he can be an effective outside threat for Stefanski. Jeudy’s best yards per reception season was his rookie year in 2020, when he posted 16.7. Last year, he was at 13.7. And only once, in 2022, has Jeudy sported a YPRR over 2.

For all the crap I give Jerry Jeudy, he is an outstanding route runner. He can be used as the guy who leads this team in targets. But a massive 24%+ target share isn’t in the offering, the way that Stefanski likes to target the TE position. As a group, Stefanski has never targeted the TE position LESS than 22.5% of the time. In 2020 and 2021, he targeted TEs at a 27% clip.

Jeudy will need to be featured down the field like Diggs was in 2019 to bring forth the kind of fantasy-relevant performances he will need to be considered an every-week starter. Is there a QB on the roster capable of providing those kinds of deep shots consistently?

Check out our latest episode covering the Cleveland Browns

Cleveland QB Whack-A-Mole

The biggest key to Jeudy’s success will lie in who will be the starting QB. With Deshaun Watson likely out all season, let’s focus on the four QBs who will be in camp.

Joe Flacco turned a magical 2023 run that led Cleveland to the playoffs into a one-year deal with the Colts. That stint with the Colts reminded everyone he was a 39-year-old QB. He took an average of 3 sacks per start, threw 7 INTs in 8 games, and averaged 7.1 yards/attempt. He made some big plays, but also made a lot of costly mistakes. And now he’s 40. So yeah, let’s think he improves…

Kenny Pickett spent last year as the backup of the Super Bowl-winning Eagles. Prior to that, he spent two years with the Pittsburgh Steelers. He wasn’t overly spectacular, but he led them to 14 wins in 24 starts. He had a TD:INT ratio of 13:14. Yikes.

Dillon Gabriel was the team’s 3rd round pick. At only 5’11”, he is the anti-Flacco (6’6”). His 7.0 aDOT from his senior season at Oregon is lower than any starting QB has had in a Stefanski-coached offense. (Watson had an aDOT of 7.1 last year.)

Then there’s Shedeur Sanders. He’s the talk of the town, the “1st round talent” who fell to the 5th round. He was the most accurate QB in college football last year, while throwing for 4,133 yards and 37 TDs. We know he’s not afraid of taking a sack behind a shitty offensive line. We also know he can throw within 5 yards of the line of scrimmage, but did you know he was 4th in the nation in deep passing yards?

While I think Kenny Pickett will be given first crack at the starting job due to experience and his 1st round pedigree, it would not shock me one bit if one of the rookies, Gabriel or Sanders, ends up starting most of the games for the Browns this season.

With young, inexperienced players under center, especially ones that aren’t considered elite talents at the position, stats won’t be plentiful for their supporting cast. In some games, they’ll look like seasoned vets. Others, they’ll look like they belong in the UFL.

Should you draft Jerry Jeudy?

My current projections have Jerry Jeudy producing a stat line of 100 targets, 60 receptions, 809 yards, and 3 TDs. That puts him at WR52 for me. (For reference, this stat line would’ve seen him finish as the WR44 last year.)

When you look at this Cleveland offense, the combination of the switch in play style and the uncertainty at QB should cause you to happily pass over Jerry Jeudy on draft day, even at his cheaper price tag. While it’s possible he finishes among the top 25 WRs at the position, just look at other WRs in the Stefanski offense to see just how likely it is that he finishes at or lower than his current ADP.

And if you needed any further reason to doubt Jeudy and the Cleveland passing attack, Guard Joel Bitonio offered this up from training camp:

If there was any doubt what the Browns offense will look like this year?

Joel Bitonio: “It feels like a 2020-2021 install.”

“Outside zone and power schemes.”

— Andrew Siciliano (@AndrewSiciliano) June 2, 2025

One outlier season isn’t worth the migraines. I promise you.

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The series is just getting started, but this link will take you to the rest of our 2025 Look Inside team previews.

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A Look Inside the Cleveland Browns

Editor’s Note: While the main article focuses on Jerry Jeudy in fantasy football, we don’t want to leave you hanging on the rest of the team. Here is a quick look at the other fantasy-relevant Browns from Josh Hudson.

Kenny Pickett/Joe Flacco

I’d wager only one of these veterans ends up making the final 53-man roster. If they both make it, that likely means one of the two rookies they drafted in the first five rounds doesn’t. At 40 years old, I’m guessing Flacco realizes that another season of football doesn’t sound so fun. Pickett will start some games, be uninspiring, and hand snaps to a rookie. Just pray his tiny hands can at least hand off the football.

Dillon Gabriel/Shedeur Sanders

I get it, we all want Sanders to win the starting job. Let’s not discount Gabriel and the fact that the team selected him over Sanders in the third round. Maybe one of these QBs gives the team hope for the future. But we only care about 2025 in this article. You’re not drafting any of them and just hoping they can throw the ball and hand it off without fumbling.

Quinshon Judkins

After spending an early 2nd-round pick on the Ohio State product, it’s a good bet the team features him much the same way the team featured former 2nd-round pick Nick Chubb. Expect a lot of carries, fewer than 30 receptions, and a top 20 season if he can find a way to score 8+ touchdowns.

Jerome Ford

After leading the team in rushing the last two years, the Browns rewarded Ford by drafting two RBs and asking him to take a pay cut. That’s gotta make you feel good about your performance, right? Ford will likely start as the RB2 behind Judkins and will hold the role until Sampson proves capable.

Dylan Sampson

Sampson was the team’s 4th-round pick. He’s a speed merchant and showed an ability to catch the football. His role is likely the pass catcher as the 1B opposite Judkins. But he needs to beat out incumbent Jerome Ford first.

Cedric Tillman

I’m more of a Tillman fan than a Jeudy fan. But if you’re looking for what Tillman will realistically do in 2025, Donovan Peoples-Jones might be your best bet. He’s at best the 3rd target with everyone healthy. But if Jerry Jeudy gets hurt, there’s WR3 upside.

Diontae Johnson

I will not allow my Diontae Johnson fandom to cloud my judgment. I love his ability to earn targets. But this will be his fifth team since 2023. That’s a good way to not actually make this roster after training camp. Assuming his talent wins out, he’s not likely to be fantasy relevant unless he assumes Jeudy’s role over Tillman in the event of an injury. (A role that, admittedly, Johnson will fill better than Tillman.)

David Njoku

There’s a less than zero chance that Njoku could lead this team in targets in 2025. He’s seen at least 80 targets in each of the last three years and averaged 5 TDs a season over the same time. Stefanski loves throwing to the TE, and this team will run a lot of 12 personnel this season. He’s currently going as the TE11 in best ball drafts, which is plenty good value for a potential top 6 season.

Harold Fannin Jr.

Will the rookie have a viable role in 2025? He’ll get a chance to, that’s for sure. He should see a minimum of three targets per game, and if we see the same field-stretching ability we saw at Bowling Green State, he will push David Njoku and eat into his target share.

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