I've Never Been More Wrong Than I Was About the Patriots Letting Jakobi Meyers Walk
It takes a big man to admit when he's wrong. But to me, it takes an even bigger man to put that man down, mock and ridicule him without mercy over his wrongness. That's how I've always done it. And it's worked pretty well so far.
And now it's everybody else's chance. Over a long career of writing a million blogs and rockin' 'em all, occasionally you get one wrong. Unless you're the leader of North Korea getting 18 holes in one the first time you pick up a golf club, everyone makes a mistake now and again. Nobody is perfect. Not even - and I hope you're either sitting down for this or wearing a device that will alert emergency services should you collapse from the shock - me. No, really.
Occasionally, as I walk alone on the road to perfection, I'll get one wrong. And when do, I don't bury it. I prefer to hold it up to the light as an example to the world of my own humility. But more importantly, to myself. As a form of self-reflection, leading to improvement.
In two days, the Patriots face one of their, and therefore my, biggest mistakes of recent memory, Jakobi Meyers. And since the team seems utterly demoralized and on the verge of total collapse, and this is undoubtedly a revenge game for him:
... the time is right for me to own this wrong example of wrongheaded wrongness gone horribly, horribly wrong:
Our long, regional nightmare is over. Or at least at the beginning of the end. Getting Juju Smith-Schuster to replace Jakobi Meyers and become the first true No. 1 wideout this franchise has been looking for might not solve all their roster issues, but it's a hell of a nice start. Especially after 2 1/2 days of watching the rest of the NFL sign away the top talent. Not to mention it's the Pats getting into the arms race that's been going on in the AFC East. We finally have someone who can line up opposite Jalen Ramsey in the Miami games and give you - and more importantly, Mac Jones - confidence he'll win that matchup.
Sure, some will ask why they'd let Meyers go after he's been so dependable in order to spent the same money on Smith-Schuster. As a matter of fact, I'm having this very conversation with a distraught Dave Portnoy as I'm typing this. The only explanation is that both GM Belichick and HC Belichick believe he can be the true WR1 he was in Pittsburgh in 2018 (111 catches, 1,426 yards, 7 TDs), and not the WR1 by default that Meyers was.
Oof.
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I went on from there. But I decided to stop excerpting, because I'm already dead. Here are the numbers, via Pro Football Reference (who deserve to be credited once in a while:
As I mentioned earlier in the week, Meyers' 25 receptions, 274 yards and 3 TDs would lead the Patriots in every category. And he missed a game with a concussion. As a matter of fact, if you project those totals out over a 17 game schedule you'd get:
106 receptions, 1,165 yards and 13 touchdowns
Sometimes referred to in New England as "Julian Edelman numbers." And despite appearing in 80% of the games the league leaders have, he's 25th in receptions and 35th in yards.
And for you analytics mathletes, Meyers is 33rd in Pro Football Focus' receiving grade. The highest graded Patriots receiver? That would be Demario Douglas. He's ranked 43rd highest. And has taken a total of 63 passing snaps, has been targeted just 17 times, and was benched for most of a game. Just to paint you a picture of where we stand at this juncture.
What makes it worse is that there's not a man, woman or child among us who thinks Meyers would be off to this kind of a start if he was still in Foxboro. The horrifying fact we all need to face is that this offense has been so dysfunctional for so long that he was our best wideout for three full seasons and the favorite target of five different starting quarterbacks over that span, and the best he was able to manage in any of them was 83 catches for 866 yards. Worse still, in 60 total games over four full seasons he had eight touchdowns in all. Again, he has three in just four games in Las Vegas. And don't be at all surprised if he doubles that total Sunday. Because that's the way things are playing out in New England over the last few years.
I bring this all up partly to own my mistakes. And I guess as a form of self-flagellation, like a Dark Ages cleric:
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But also to put the Meyers blunder on the pile of decisions by GM Bill that you could make sense of at the time, but have totally blown up in his face. Yes, he saved a little money with Smith-Schuster, who in the past showed he has a higher ceiling than Meyers. But through five games he's shown no ability to function in this offense. He's little more than an NPC at this point. One of many, many veteran wideouts who thrived elsewhere (Smith-Schuster had over 900 yards in Kansas City last year, with a team-high nine targets, seven receptions, and four 1st downs in the Super Bowl) but were rendered utterly worthless in New England.
And that pile of mistakes by Belichick is getting high. If it's true that Mr. Kraft is "angry" and running out of patience with this state of affairs and decides he's seen enough, the decision to let Meyers go, only to watch him flourish under Josh McDaniels might be the final nail in the coffin.