The Las Vegas Raiders have signed WR Jakobi Meyers to a 3-year, $33 million deal.
In a largely uninspiring free agent wide receiver class, Meyers was one of the bigger names to look out for.
There was a lot of speculation leading up to the signing about where Meyers might go.
Could it be the Chicago Bears? They just traded for D.J. Moore.
Could it be the Carolina Panthers or the New York Giants and become their WR1?
Ultimately, familiarity with Josh McDaniels won out and Meyers is now a Raider.
We’ll look into how this impacts Meyers and the rest of the Raiders' pass-catchers Fantasy Football outlook!
Las Vegas Raiders Sign Jakobi Meyers
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Carr/Waller Out, Garoppolo/Meyers In
Jakobi Meyers was the New England Patriots' most productive receiver the past few years, leading them in targets and receiving yards while surprisingly coming a close second to Rhamondre Stevenson in receptions in 2022.
Despite Meyers' targets and receptions being down in 2022, he posted a career-high in touchdowns with six. He also saw a career-high in yards per game at 57.4.
Part of the reason his numbers went down was just that the target tree was much more spread out than it was in 2021. Eight players garnered 38 or more targets this season compared to six in 2021. Notably, Stevenson garnered 88 targets in 2022, compared to just 18 in 2021.
I don’t believe that Meyers' lack of target percentage was due to a drop in skill, but more due to the Patriots having more options to throw to in the passing game.
On a per-catch basis, Meyers was, and is, good. While his aDOT of 9.9 might not be the most impressive, it was actually higher than Amon-Ra St. Brown and Cooper Kupp and on par with Christian Kirk. He actually had more yards per target than all of those guys as well.
Jimmy Garappolo is a fine QB, but Meyers will have to compete for targets with Davante Adams and established slot savant Hunter Renfrow.
As a whole, I don’t think his addition hurts Adams much. He’s such a dominant force it would take a lot to kill his value. Meyers likely slides into the WR2 role given his familiarity with the system run by head coach Josh McDaniels. With Darren Waller now traded to the New York Giants, that opens up a decent amount of targets for Meyers, even with Renfrow and Adams there.
What Now for the Patriots?
The Patriots will need to strengthen their WR corp this off-season via trade, free agency, and/or the draft. Tyquan Thornton flashed but wasn’t consistently involved as a rookie.
Meyers' departure opens up a big role in the passing game that will need to be filled. Maybe Thornton takes a step forward, but it would be wise of the Patriots to protect themselves in case he doesn’t.
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