- Jakobi Meyers will get a brand new quarterback: The Las Vegas Raiders added Geno Smith, giving Meyers a much-needed improve on the place, which ought to assist his landing whole.
- The Raiders add extra competitors: Las Vegas additionally added Ashton Jeanty at working again and three large receivers within the draft, which may imply fewer passes for Meyers.
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Estimated Studying Time: 5 minutes
PFF’s Fantasy Soccer Participant Profile collection delivers probably the most in-depth fantasy soccer evaluation obtainable for the 2025 season.
Utilizing PFF’s unique knowledge, we consider participant efficiency, competitors for touches and the way teammates and training staffs
Final up to date: 7:15 a.m. Wednesday, Could 28
Participant efficiency
Meyers was an undrafted rookie for the New England Patriots in 2019. He was in a position to emerge as a part of a heavy rotation, with Julian Edelman because the clear lead large receiver, however Phillip Dorsett, Mohamed Sanu, Josh Gordon and N’Keal Harry all rotating with Meyers. Edelman was injured after six video games of the 2020 season, which ended up being the final six video games of his profession. Meyers took over as the first slot receiver, turning into a weekly starter. He led the large receiver room in snaps, routes, targets, receptions and yards over the remainder of the season.
Meyers remained the highest receiver for the Patriots in 2021 and 2022, however he was not often a goal within the crimson zone and was rotated out greater than most prime large receivers. He solely recorded three 100-yard video games over his 4 years with the Patriots. He completed as WR40 and WR30 in factors per recreation over the 2 seasons. He signed with the Las Vegas Raiders in free company, reuniting him with Josh McDaniels. The Raiders additionally added Davante Adams, which turned Meyers from the highest large receiver to the second possibility. Most of Meyers’ stats decreased with the transfer, however the Raiders rotated him out much less typically than the Patriots, and he grew to become extra of a crimson zone goal. These two positives outweighed the negatives, resulting in the Twenty fourth-most fantasy factors per recreation.
In 2024, Adams solely lasted three video games with the Raiders earlier than he was injured after which traded. The Raiders’ depth at large receiver was skinny, so he performed at the least 90% of Las Vegas’ offensive snaps in two-thirds of his video games. He caught a minimal of two catches for 25 yards every recreation and doubled his variety of profession 100-yard video games from three to 6. The excessive goal fee and yards per recreation ought to have led to an enormous enhance in his fantasy worth, however as an alternative, he was solely WR23 in fantasy factors per recreation. The rationale for the slight enhance was a drop in touchdowns. Whereas he was focused 10 instances in the long run zone, solely three of these passes had been catchable, and one was referred to as again as a result of a penalty. This led his landing whole to be lower in half.
Projected function
Meyers’ main competitors for targets is tight finish Brock Bowers, however a staff can usually have two receivers co-exist for fantasy functions, which was true with the Raiders final season. The Raiders spent a variety of their draft capital on new offensive expertise. Their first spherical decide was spent on working again Ashton Jeanty, whereas their second, fourth and sixth spherical picks had been all on large receivers. Jack Bech is all however assured to be on the sector in most three-wide receiver units, and there may be additionally an opportunity Dont’e Thornton Jr. may additionally surpass Tre Tucker within the depth chart. Meyers has usually performed somewhat higher out large in comparison with within the slot, and Bech has the flexibility to play each inside and outside. Bech might be able to assist Meyers’ fantasy worth greater than he hurts it.
The first concern is with Jeanty. The Raiders had the bottom staff run grade final season, and now they may have one of many highest. That is very more likely to enable the Raiders to run the ball extra typically, resulting in Meyers working fewer routes. His 38.9 routes per recreation final season ranked fourth-most amongst large receivers, and that’s very more likely to lower due to Jeanty.
Affect of teammates
Meyers can be enjoying with a brand new head coach in Pete Carroll and a brand new offensive coordinator in Chip Kelly, whose had success with large receivers of all styles and sizes, so the offense shouldn’t have a lot of an issue getting Meyers concerned. There’s additionally some concern that when a brand new regime brings in new gamers, these new gamers will change into the larger precedence whereas the older gamers will change into much less of a precedence.
The excellent news is that Meyers needs to be enjoying with one of the best quarterback of his NFL profession. Tom Brady was one of the best quarterback he performed with earlier than this season, however that was his rookie season, the place he didn’t play rather a lot, and Brady didn’t grade as properly in his ultimate season with the New England Patriots as he did the remainder of his profession. Smith graded higher every of the final two seasons. Brady occurs to nonetheless be part of Meyers’ profession because the minority proprietor of the Raiders. Smith notably has an amazing deep goal fee. Meyers sometimes sees deeper targets than the common slot receiver. Will probably be fascinating to see how a lot Meyers will get utilized deep, however this could possibly be additional excellent news for Meyers.
Backside line
Meyers has at all times been in a position to outperform his expertise dude to an absence of competitors for touches. The Raiders have largely reworked their offense, however Meyers nonetheless seems to be the highest large receiver on the depth chart. The modifications create volatility in Meyers’ potential outcomes. He’s most unlikely to complete among the many top-10 fantasy large receivers, however he’s a strong wager to stay a fantasy starter.
Footnotes
- Statistics in tables and charts had been chosen primarily based on their potential to foretell future fantasy efficiency on a per-game or per-opportunity foundation or to explain the participant relative to others on the identical place.
- “Alternatives” are outlined as passing dropbacks, dashing makes an attempt and routes run as a receiver.
- Numbers are supplied both by season or primarily based on the previous three years. For rookies, solely school statistics are included. For non-rookies, solely NFL statistics are thought of, no matter whether or not they performed in school throughout the earlier three years.
- As school competitors is less complicated than NFL competitors, most rookies are more likely to see a decline from their historic numbers.
- Solely FBS knowledge is taken into account for school gamers and comparisons.
- Kneel-downs are faraway from dashing knowledge to offer cleaner quarterback dashing fee statistics.
- The desk colours on this article vary from blue (indicating good/excessive) to crimson (indicating dangerous/low).
- All percentiles and shade codings examine the given participant to others with a excessive pattern of alternatives. Usually, the cutoff is one-third of the attainable alternatives within the pattern. If a participant doesn’t meet the brink, they’re nonetheless included within the comparability, although their outcomes might seem higher or worse than anticipated as a result of smaller, much less predictive pattern measurement.
- Data on utilization classifications and their significance might be discovered right here for working backs, large receivers and tight ends.
