An inside look from Director of Player Personnel Matt Russell at how the Broncos scouted, ranked and selected wide receiver Jerry Jeudy

[Miles]

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — When President of Football Operations/General Manager John Elway and the Broncos selected former Alabama wide receiver Jerry Jeudy with the 15th-overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, it marked the beginning of Jeudy's career in Denver.


But it also marked the end of the months-long process that brought Jeudy to the Broncos.


Via an interview with the Broncos' Director of Player Personnel Matt Russell, we pieced together a look at the scouting process that spanned from the team's initial inquiries about Jeudy all the way to draft night.


"We knew he was a guy that was going to be right there in the wheelhouse when we picked," Russell said in an interview following the draft.


The Broncos' scouting of Jeudy began when southeast area scout Frantzy Jourdain visited Alabama last fall. While the media often focuses on which games a team's GM attends, most of the work was done in the days before.


That's when Jourdain visited with coaches, support staffers, trainers and others. He did not interact with Jeudy, as the 2018 Biletnikoff Award winner was still in school.


Following the visit, Jourdain entered all the information into an electronic system to be reviewed by Russell, Director of College Scouting Brian Stark and Elway. Though the scouting staff didn't discuss Jeudy at that time, that information was available to be accessed and reviewed.


"All that information's right there at the tip of our fingertips," Russell said. "Once a scout has gone into Alabama, if I want to go look at what Jerry Jeudy's personal or football character is, I can go into our system and find that out."


As Jeudy pieced together a season in which he caught 77 passes, 1,163 yards and 10 touchdowns, the Broncos continued to track the dynamic receiver. Denver followed Jourdain's visit to Alabama with a visit from Eastern Regional Scout Nick Schiralli before stacking Jeudy among the other players in December. At the beginning, it's to help shape a rough outline of how the Broncos' draft board will look in April.


"It's just a very vague, general stacking with probably north of 350-400 names on the board," Russell said. "And we whittle that down as we go; we whittle that down after February when we have area scouts cross-check one position and compare apples to apples. We whittle it after the Combine. And then ultimately the final stack comes in April when John [Elway], Vic [Fangio], myself and Stark all get together and we generate that final stack."