Letting wide receiver Jakobi Meyers walk in free agency in 2023 was one of the worst mistakes the New England Patriots made in the post-Brady era. Now, there’s a sliver of a chance they can remedy it.
Meyers has requested a trade from the Las Vegas Raiders, according to NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero.
“The team, citing his value, said they had no plans to do so. Meyers and the team attemped to negotiated a new contract, but could not come to terms,” Rapoport posted on X.
Not to be too cynical, but…on its face, this trade request looks a heck of a lot like the negotiating tactic that just earned Washington Commanders receiver Terry McLaurin a hefty new paycheck. The Raiders’ response is a carbon copy of Washington’s stance. Meyers is entering his final year of his $33 million contract and will collect $10.76 million this season. At 28 years old, he’s coming off his most productive year, having posted 1,027 receiving yards with Aidan O’Connell as his quarterback.
As this Monday quickly reminded all of us, these guys don’t usually move. They get a new deal. But let’s examine what the Patriots should consider if they hop on the horn with Vegas:
Meyers isn’t quite the homerun addition McLaurin would have been, but he’s proven himself worthy of a much richer contract than his current one, to the extent that the Patriots should feel obligated to make a juicy offer to Vegas.
It’s not about righting past wrongs, (although it would). It’s about fit.
The Patriots’ wide receiver room looks like it’s improved. They’re at least more organized and professional under coach Todd Downing than they appeared at any point last season. It’s still fair to question whether they’ve reached league average, because who knows exactly how 31-year-old post-ACL Stefon Diggs will look in a real game? Or whether Mack Hollins will be more than a situational guy, as he was in Buffalo last year?
Meyers might not light your hair on fire, but he’d be a likely upgrade over other guys on the roster. Boston Herald reporter Doug Kyed floated a compelling trade proposal when he joined the Audacy podcast ‘6 Rings’ after Patriots practice Monday.
“If I were Eliot Wolf, or if I were Ryan Cowden, or Mike Vrabel, I would be hitting up the Raiders and saying, ‘Alright, what would you potentially want?’” Kyed said. “It is a deep group of wide receivers right now.
Kayshon Boutte’s had a good camp. DeMario Douglas has had a good camp. Mack Hollins has had a good camp. But still, if you want to make your team as good as possible, and if you want a wide receiver who’s worked with Josh McDaniels – who knows what Jakobi Meyers could do – he might be kind of like, the ideal of what you’d want out of a slot receiver right now. He’s a bigger player who could block a little bit, so then you start talking about, does one of those wide receivers become part of a trade? Would you ship off DeMario Douglas and a pick, would you ship off Kayshon Boutte and a pick to get Jakobi Meyers? I, personally, would at least consider it.”
Meyers has proven himself a dependable slot receiver and had nearly twice as many receiving yards as Douglas did last year, in fewer games (15 vs. 17). He also had just one drop, compared to Douglas’s seven.
Douglas’s age and contract are more favorable than Meyers’, but as Kyed noted, Meyers has a proven track record with offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels. Plus, he’s just 28 – not a mid-30s guy with a ton of tread off his tires. If he could be gotten with a third-round pick and a roster player below Diggs, it should be a go.
What else, what else? Mac Jones once called Meyers “probably his favorite teammate,” (although that was, ironically, after the lateral from hell that lost the Patriots the 2022 Raiders game). Perhaps more importantly, he’s a rare commodity in the post-Brady era: a wide receiver they Patriots successfully developed, from his humble beginnings as an undrafted free agent.
So yes, there would be poetic justice to bringing Meyers back to Foxboro, but it makes a lot of football sense, too. The question is whether it’s feasible, or if he’s just calling his front office’s bluff.