New Raiders WR Jakobi Meyers on signing big free agent deal ‘still that undrafted kid from Georgia’
It’s been quite an NFL journey for Jakobi Meyers. He went undrafted out of North Carolina State in 2019 and has had to fight to prove himself from day one.
Each season of his career, he’s seen his number go up in one way or another. And that consistent improvement led to his signing a three-year, $33 million deal with the Las Vegas Raiders.
What’s his secret? Remembering where he came from and letting it keep him humble.
“That’s something I won’t ever let myself forget,” Meyers said of going undrafted. “I remind myself every day. Just so I don’t get too big headed. At the end of the day, you’re still that undrafted kid from Georgia. Even saying that, there’s those moments where you’re like ‘well, you are that undrafted kid from Georgia.’ There’s some precious moments, you know. Precious moments with my family. My mom shedding tears, my brothers, everybody. I know they’re proud and happy I went through and stuck it out. I smile when I think about it. I’m grateful. Just thank God.”
Things didn’t just click for Meyers right away either. It wasn’t simply a matter of having all the talent and proving it to his coaches. It was about improvement.
One stat above all others showed that — touchdowns.
Meyers developed a bit of a reputation for having catches, but never being the one to cash it in for a score.
He went his first two seasons without scoring a touchdown. It wasn’t until week 10 of his third season — 164 NFL catches — that he finally broke through and had his first touchdown. An NFL record.
“It was just a trust thing. I had to earn trust day-by-day. It wasn’t an easy road. I had a lot of new quarterbacks, so there’s was a lot of miscommunication or I messed something and I wasn’t able to be where I needed to be, so I just felt like I needed to lock in an understand where I needed to be exactly when I needed to be there. Just making tough catches in tough situations. Because the red zone is hard. It’s hard to score down there.”
Meyers apparently figured it out, because his six touchdowns last season were more than he’d had in a season even in his best college season.
Combine that with his surpassing 800 yards each of the past two seasons and Josh McDaniels clearly sees Meyers hitting his prime. That and his familiarity in McDaniels’s offense was enough to bring him to Vegas.
