Getty Jakobi Meyers, WR of the Raiders
Whatever can be said of the decisions made by the Raiders brain trust of coach Josh McDaniels and GM Dave Ziegler, there is one transaction for which they deserve plenty of credit—the signing of wide receiver Jakobi Meyers as a free agent in March, after he had spent four years in New England.
What should add a little extra glee to the performance we’ve seen from Meyers to this point is that his absence in New England is making Patriots coach Bill Belichick—known cheater and one of the great beneficiaries of the Tuck Rule fiasco—squirm more than a little in front of a media that is finally holding his feet to the fire.
With the Patriots preparing to face the Raiders for the first time since Meyers left New England, Belichick was repeatedly asked about the team’s decision to let Meyers walk and instead pursue former Steelers and Chiefs star Juju Smith-Schuster. The results were entertaining, to say the least.
From Belichick’s presser on Wednesday:
“BB: Well, (Meyers) was a free agent and signed to the Raiders. There’s a lot of guys who leave and change teams in free agency.”
“Q. Bill, is there any reason why Jakobi Myers wasn’t more of a priority in free agency?”
“BB: He was a priority. We talked to him.”
“Q. Do you feel like you were ever close?”
“BB: Relatively, yeah. But free agency is free agency.”
Meyers Has Been Excellent With the Raiders
It is true that free agency is free agency. It’s also true that mistakes are mistakes. The Patriots had the opportunity to bring back Meyers, and instead gave a contract to Smith-Schuster, who has been a huge disappointment. That was a mistake. Meyers wanted to go back to the Patriots.
When the signing of Smith-Schuster was announced, Meyers tweeted out, “Cold world lol.”
Credit McDaniels for being in the right place at the right time on Meyers. He had been close to the receiver in New England, where Meyers had worked up from an undrafted free agent to the cusp of stardom.
“I was always so impressed with him just from the time we got him,” McDaniels said of Meyers in March, according to the Boston Herald. “He worked hard, and learned how to do the two things we’ve always stressed: to get open and catch the ball.”
He’s been doing that in Las Vegas.
Now in his fifth NFL season, Meyers is having a career year, averaging 6.3 catches and 68.5 yards per game. He sat out in Week 2 for the Raiders after suffering a concussion in the opener, but he is currently on pace for 100 catches and 1,096 yards receiving. Both would be career highs. He is also on pace for 12 touchdowns, which is more than the eight total touchdowns he had in his Patriots career.
Meyers Move Called a ‘Faceplant’ by Patriots
And again, not only do the Raiders have an excellent weapon—one of the best No. 2 receivers in the NFL, in fact—thanks to the Meyers move, but Raiders fans get to watch Belichick get taken to task on his decision. The Raider may be struggling at 2-3, but they’re not 1-4, at least, and coming off two blowout losses like New England.
NBC Sports Boston’s Tom Curran, one of the deepest of Patriots insiders, said that the Meyers decision is emblematic of what has gone wrong in New England:
“Meyers was a premeditated faceplant by the Patriots and Bill Belichick, in which the plan was to move on from a player that everyone but Bill Belichick could tell was one of their best and then replacing him with an injured player whose best days were behind him …
“Even though Jakobi was right in front of him for four years, he apparently didn’t think that Meyers was $10 million good.”