The Patriots let Jakobi Meyers walk in Free Agency for only $33M. But why?

The real reason New England chose not to re-sign homegrown receiver Jakobi Meyers.

By PGS Nest

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Background Knowledge

On March 14th, 2023, the Las Vegas Raiders agreed to a three-year, $33M deal with former Patriots wide receiver Jakobi Meyers. Meyers, an undrafted free agent who signed with New England in 2019, has grown into a well rounded receiver over the last four years. During his tenure with the Patriots, Meyers accumulated over 2,700 receiving yards, 235 total receptions, and eight touchdowns, while leading New England in receiving yards for the past three seasons. Pretty good for an undrafted free agent...

Meyers, who was due for a new contract in 2023, was expected to be offered up to $15M due to a poor free agent market at the wide receiver position. His departure from New England seemed inevitable before the legal tampering period even began.

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What's the Issue?

New England has had one of the worse wide receiver rooms in the NFL for the past several years and losing your top receiver doesn't exactly fix that. DeVante Parker, who has struggled with injuries his entire career and has only once amassed more than 1,000 receiving yards in a season, Kendrick Bourne, a solid backup receiver who is wildly inconsistent, Tyquan Thornton, an unproven second-year player, Tre Nixon, a player who has spent his entire career on the practice squad, and Lynn Bowden Jr., a player brought in primarily to return kickoffs, make up the Patriots' current wide receiver room.

With the Patriots' current wide receiver room, Mac Jones will not have the receivers he needs in ordernto grow. Even selecting a wide receiver in the NFL draft won't be sufficient because a quarterback just cannot be improved by a young, inexperienced player. To develop as a quarterback and win games, Mac Jones needs the support of a legitimate #1 receiver for New England.

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Why Let Jakobi Meyers Walk?

According to Dianna Russini of ESPN, she does not get the sense the Patriots are actively pursuing free agent wide receivers at the moment. According to this report, it sounds like New England's current receiver core will remain unchanged until draft night in late April. If New England doesn't make a trade...

Jakobi Meyers is simply not an explosive athlete, and newly hired offensive coordinator Bill O'Brien has a history of frequently using explosive skill players to ignite his previous offenses. Due to Meyers' underwhelming display of skills after the catch, O'Brien most certainly did not want him to return to New England. In this year's draft, O'Brien can and most likely will find a player who will provide him with the explosive productivity after the catch he seeks. However, simply adding a rookie to the Patriots current receiver room will not be sufficient.

After the 2022 season, Patriots owner Robert Kraft stated that the wide receiver room needs to be changed. New England choosing to not re-sign Jakobi Meyers further demonstrates their sincere efforts to overhaul their wide receiver corps in order to accommodate Bill O'Brien's offensive system, which features dynamic skill players. New England also knows they cannot head into next season with DeVante Parker as their #1 wide receiver. With the Patriots being named in trade rumors for top-name receivers such as Arizona Cardinals' WR DeAndre Hopkins and Denver Broncos WR Jerry Jeudy, I can't help to think that a trade is on the way...