Front and center of the Patriots’ Week 6 contest this weekend in Las Vegas is the fact that wide receiver Jakobi Meyers will take the field in a black and grey uniform, not a red, white, and blue one.
This past offseason, Meyers did not re-sign with New England and instead inked a three-year, $33 million contract to play with Josh McDaniels and the Raiders. On Wednesday, head coach Bill Belichick was asked about his former undrafted gem, and why he's not still playing in Foxborough.
"He was a free agent and he signed with the Raiders,” the head coach explained. "There’s a lot of guys that leave and change teams in free agency. But yeah, Jakobi looks like he looked here."
the greg hill show: Devin McCourty joins and says Bill should relinquish GM duties for team
Given that the Patriots’ wide receiver corps is, statistically, the worst passing offense versus man coverage in 2023, Belichick was asked on Wednesday if separating at the top of the route is something they can improve on, given that, as safeties coach Brian Belichick suggested on Tuesday, is one of Meyers' strengths.
“We can be better in every area," he begrudgingly responded.
Those areas do, in fact, include wide receiver, and they include offseason acquisition JuJu Smith-Schuster, who signed a similar contract to Meyers this past March. Here’s how the two compare so far this season:
- Jakobi Meyers: 25 rec, 274 yards, 3 TD (4 games)
- JuJu Smith Schuster: 14 rec, 86 yards (5 games)
Note that Meyers also missed Week 2 with a concussion.
So why wasn’t Meyers a priority for the Patriots to re-sign this offseason? Well according to Belichick, he was:
"He was a priority. We talked to him," he said on Wednesday. He was then asked if he felt the team was close to a deal.
"Relatively, yeah," Belichick said. "Free agency's free agency."
If Meyers was, in fact, a priority for New England, it's reportedly news to his camp according to the Boston Herald’s Andrew Callahan. All of the tea leaves suggest that the once undrafted pass catcher was not in the Patriots’ future plans.
In most cases, this would be a massive story. And while it's certainly turning into one this week with the Raiders on the horizon, this is realistically just another blip on the radar scanning the tumultuous 2023 season in Foxborough.
Make sure to follow Mike on Twitter @mikekadlick, and follow @WEEI for the latest up-to-date Patriots and Boston sports news!
Related
