Jerry Jeudy is Glad Payton Isn't 'Trying to Kill Us' Like Saban

Jerry Jeudy experienced some brutal summer training with the Alabama Crimson Tide.

In the early stages of training camp, the Denver Broncos defense mostly dominated the offense. Training camp tends to read like a book, and true to form, the narrative has changed somewhat in recent practices.

Head coach Sean Payton has described events as they unfold at training camp as being the standard ebbs and flows. The installation of new Payton's schemes has been the point of focus for all concerned. 

Many thought that Payton would take a boot-camp approach to proceedings, but if anything, he's appeared much more relaxed and driven than perhaps some expected, getting the details right out of the gates.

Broncos wide receiver Jerry Jeudy is used to coping with hard taskmasters on account of the fact that he played his college ball at Alabama under legendary coach Nick Saban. Having spent some time now under Payton's charge, it might come as a surprise to hear that Jeudy feels this training camp isn't designed to break the troops as it sometimes felt under Saban.

“They do a great job of taking care of our body and stuff like that,” Jeudy said on Friday. “But in college, they were trying to kill us for real. But yeah, I think Sean does a great job of just making sure our bodies feel great so we could be able to practice each and every day.”

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In addition to the conditioning work, Jeudy's daily battles against the Broncos' talented secondary have tested him fully, and trying to get the upper hand has been no walk in the park. Even so, he has continued to bring his A-game but was also particularly generous in his praise for his combative defensive teammates.

“It's very difficult, especially having this great secondary. They know how to play the assignment well,” Jeudy said. “We’ve got great DBs, a great safety, a great secondary that’s just hard to beat, so you got to make sure you focus on all the little details just so you can cause that just a little bit of separation.”

Going against an explosive defense has been made all the more difficult in the wake of the devastating loss of veteran pass-catcher Tim Patrick to a season-ending Achilles injury. Clearly, it delivered a major blow to the wide receiver room, but it's one that Jeudy feels will be offset by the talented depth the Broncos have on the roster.

“We’ve got a lot of great receivers, a lot of great young guys,” Jeudy said. “So I know we’ve got a lot of great receivers that are going to be able to step up and make plays. Tim Patrick was a different type of player, but I feel like we got some young guys that are ready to step up.”

The action resumes once again on Monday, with confidence building on the offensive side of the ball after Russell Wilson's impressive Saturday practice. Things are set to ramp up considerably. 

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