Las Vegas Raiders head coach Josh McDaniels didn’t have to search too hard to find what he was looking for this offseason.
Jakobi Meyers is somewhat of the prototype wideout McDaniels wants in his offense and McDaniels will get a chance to coach the former Patriots wide receiver again after the Raiders pried him away from New England in free agency.
“He just fits what I’ve always kind of looked for in a receiver and we’re fortunate we had a chance to add him,” McDaniels told the Boston Herald’s Karen Guregian from the annual NFL meetings in Phoenix on Monday.
The two spent three seasons together with the Patriots as McDaniels watched closely as Meyers developed from an undrafted free agent into one of the more reliable pass-catchers in New England’s offense.
The Raiders handed Meyers a three-year, $33 million deal on the second day of the league’s NFL tampering period. With Meyers reuniting with McDaniels, the Patriots opted to fill the void by signing JuJu Smith-Schuster to a contract of very similar terms.
“I’m excited about it,” McDaniels told Guregian. “Obviously, I got to be with Jakobi for a few years at the beginning of his career. I was always so impressed with him just from the time we got him. He worked hard, and learned how to do the two things we’ve always stressed: to get open and catch the ball.”
Meyers, who caught 67 passes for 804 yards and a career-high six touchdowns last season with the Patriots, is just one of many assets at the disposal of McDaniels in a talented Raiders offense that now has Jimmy Garoppolo under center.
And McDaniels believes Meyers can flourish while lining up next to Davante Adams and Hunter Renfrow, who are two of the top pass-catching options for Las Vegas and will demand a lot of attention from opposing defenses.
“I don’t look at (Meyers) as a 1-2-or-3 (receiver),” McDaniels said. “If they’re a good football player, we feel like we can add him to our group and use him in a way to help them be productive and help our team. That’s what he’s always done. For us, we have a guy like Davante, we’ll pair Jakobi with him. We’re eager to see that. And Hunter Renfrow inside, so we can do some different things with this group, now.”
