Just before the 2024 NFL Free Agency Off Season began, this past weekend Cleveland Browns General Manager Andrew Berry filled a team need with a trade to the Denver Broncos. The Browns send Denver their 2024 5th and 6th round draft picks and Cleveland receives WR Jerry Jeudy.  Jeudy will fit nicely as a number two wide receiver next to his longtime idol WR Amari Cooper.

Cooper was the reason Jeudy chose to play college football at Alabama. He was a 2020 first round draft pick for Denver. And he was the 15th overall pick. Jeudy will again follow in his hero’s footsteps and play wide receiver for the Cleveland Browns. The most interesting aspect of this early off-season move is the way the Browns made it happen.

Jeudy was rumored to go to Cleveland via a trade for the last two seasons. Browns GM Andrew Berry showed patience and waited to not overpay for the player he coveted. He was able to essentially give up late round picks in a top-heavy talent draft to get his man. Jeudy is a first-round talent and was begotten with day three draft picks because of Denver’s salary cap hit after releasing QB Russell Wilson. This type of work from Andrew Berry has been done before.

Two years ago, the Dallas Cowboys traded their star wide receiver Amari Cooper to the Cleveland Browns for a fifth-round pick. Dallas needed to unload Coopers 20-million-dollar salary cap hit. And the Browns were able to get him with a late round pick. Last year wide receiver Elijah Moore was traded from the Jets to the Browns along with a third-round pick for that draft. The Browns gave up their 2023 second-round pick and fourth-round pick. The third-round pick became WR Cedric Tillman. Andrew Berry was able to get a number three receiver and a developmental receiver for essentially and fourth-round pick. The Jets made this trade because they needed the second-round pick to trade for QB Aaron Rodgers. Also last year Berry was able to trade with the Minnesota Vikings for a Pro Bowl defensive end Z ’Darius Smith to play opposite of Myles Garrett. The Browns sent the Vikings 2024 and 2025 Fifth Round Draft Picks. This was Berry again taking advantage of another team’s salary cap situation. Keep in mind that Andrew Berry is making the trade for Jeudy to win now while being cognizant of the future.

Andrew Berry can see Jerry Jeudy as a number one receiver for the Browns by next season. Amari Cooper is on the last year of his contract and will be 30 years old next season. Jerry Jeudy is on the final year of his rookie contract and turns 25 years old next month. Since Andrew Berry was hired by the Browns in 2020, he has assembled a championship caliber roster. He did this while strategically thinking of the future. Although Andrew Berry is not perfect, he seems to be two or three moves ahead of other NFL GMs. NFL pundits and National Media have yet to notice what he has accomplished.  Maybe they will after the 2024 NFL Off Season officially begins?