The season is now a third of the way over, even though the Broncos haven’t played a third of their games yet. That makes now an ideal time to review this year’s rookie class and hand out early grades for how they’ve performed in an incredibly limited sample size.
Michael Ojemudia
So far the Broncos’ draft pick that appears to be the biggest hit — the third-round selection of Iowa cornerback Michael Ojemudia — is also the pick that was most widely criticized for being a reach.
You can’t blame the pundits either, as it was a reach. Ojemudia was projected to go in the middle of the fourth round, but John Elway and Co. felt confident enough in the raw cover-man to take him at the top of the third, and as a result, they deserve a ton of credit for being right.
His career got off to a fast start when he made a potentially game-changing interception in Week 1 that was called back by a questionable roughing the passer penalty. A rocky Week 2 performance led to a lot of early criticism, but Ojemudia has rebounded in a big way the last three games. Since Week 2, Ojemudia hasn’t given up a touchdown and has allowed just 110 receiving yards, a completion percentage of 55.0%, and a passer rating of 70.8 when targeted in coverage.
For a more thorough analysis of why Ojemudia might be the league’s best rookie cornerback, make sure you check out Rich Kurtzman’s latest article.
Grade: A+
Jerry Jeudy
Early on, receiver Jerry Jeudy is also looking like a hit.
His ability to separate at every level is truly special and will make him a star in this league in the near future. He can already release off the line of scrimmage better than 95 percent of professional receivers, and his routes are more precise than the world’s most expensive surgeons.
The production hasn’t been at the desired level yet, but it’s hard to blame Jeudy for that considering the adverse position he’s in. Outside of Henry Ruggs, no rookie receiver is being asked to be their team’s top receiving threat, and even Ruggs has had the benefit of working with the same quarterback all season, who happens to be an established veteran as a bonus.
Jeudy has been forced to be the focal point of the defense’s attention while catching passes from Brett Rypien and Jeff Driskel. It’s hard to be productive in that setting.
Grade: B
Albert Okwuegbunam
The rookie tight end made an impressive debut against the Patriots that should have Broncos Country thrilled. He missed two touchdown opportunities that he should have been able to convert, even with heavy traffic.
Even with the drops, Okwuegbunam jumped off the screen multiple times and now should see steady usage in the offense. The thought of him and Noah Fant on the field at the same time should leave you drooling.
It also doesn’t hurt that the pre-existing chemistry between Okwuegbunam and Drew Lock is obviously very strong.
Grade: B-
Lloyd Cushenberry III
Rookie center Lloyd Cushenberry has had the roughest non-injury-related start to his career among Denver’s 2020 rookie class.
Through the first four weeks of the season Cushenberry allowed an eye-popping 15 pressures, and that is including an outlying performance in Week 1, that saw him allow just one pressure. That means he allowed 14 pressures in a three-game span, three of which ended in sacks and three more of which ended in hits on the quarterback.
Pro Football Focus also has graded him as the worst Broncos player through the first five games of the season, with a 38.7 overall grade. His pass-blocking grade of 23.7 is nearly 20 points lower than the next-lowest-graded offensive lineman (Dalton Risner, 43.3) and his run-blocking grade is only ahead of Austin Schlottman on the offensive line.
Cushenberry had his best game of the season against the Patriots though, so hopefully, he’ll be able to continue building on that.
Grade: D
The ones we aren’t sure about yet
K.J. Hamler showed some unbelievably promising moments against the Steelers in Week 2. Since he’s still a high-end route runner and has incredibly rare speed, his ability to separate may end up rivaling Jeudy’s when all said and done. With that said though, a nagging hamstring injury has stopped him from seeing the field much.
McTelvin Agim hasn’t seen the field much either, but that is less a result of injury and more a result of the Broncos having an incredibly deep defensive line. Agim had an unbelievable training camp but it’s definitely disappointing that street free agent DeShawn Williams had an easier time cracking the rotation than Agim, following injuries to Dre’Mont Jones and DeMarcus Walker.
Justin Strnad and Netane Muti haven’t played a snap this season, but that shouldn’t be considered a knock against either player. Muti was an extremely raw and undeveloped lineman that had every tool and trait you could ever want. In other words, his development is right on schedule and it shouldn’t be a surprise that he isn’t ready to start in relief of Risner quite yet. Strnad on the other hand likely would be starting at linebacker alongside Alexander Johnson, if he didn’t suffer a broken wrist injury in training camp that instantly ended his season.
Derreck Tuszka and Tyrie Cleveland have been used almost exclusively on special teams, but the few times they’ve seen the field on offense or defense they’ve made an impact. Tuszka capitalized on a Cam Newton mistake to create a big loss of yardage last week, and Cleveland was the Broncos’ highest-graded offensive player against the Titans per PFF, despite his limited snap count.
Finally Essang Bassey has been an incredibly impressive undrafted free agent. Just for making the roster during the year of coronavirus as an undrafted free agent makes him worthy of an A grade. Yes, he’s struggled in coverage more than any other Bronco cornerback and Bausby has undeniably been a sizable upgrade on Bassey, but for his level of experience and where he was drafted, he’s still performing admirably.