Despite abysmal quarterback play last season, Las Vegas Raiders wide receiver Jakobi Meyers had a career-high 87 receptions and topped 1,000 yards for the first time in his career. He also had zero drops on his 129 targets.
Given the lackluster nature of his situation, fantasy football managers can be excused for not realizing Meyers finished as a WR2 in fantasy last year, regardless of scoring format. An obvious upgrade at quarterback came this offseason in Geno Smith, but Meyers' Average Draft Position (ADP) never accounted for that upgrade at all.
Although Meyers has asked for a trade and wants a contract extension, he has not been a distraction for the team. He had a "revenge game" in Week 1 against the New England Patriots, so it was going to be interesting to see how he did.
Raiders' Jakobi Meyers never gets the fantasy football respect he deserves
Against his former team, Meyers led the Raiders with eight catches and 10 targets on his way to 97 receiving yards. His 29% target share was top-10 among wide receivers in Week 1, and he finished as the 15th-best wide receiver in full PPR scoring.
According to Pro Football Focus, Meyers tied for the second-most forced missed tackles on runs or receptions in Week 1. Jacob Gibbs of CBS Sports also highlighted a notable increase in the use of horizontal-breaking routes by Raiders offensive coordinator Chip Kelly compared to what the Las Vegas offense did last year.
ESPN fantasy analyst Eric Moody included a note about Meyers in his review of Week 1.
"Jakobi Meyers was an afterthought in many fantasy drafts as the WR37, but in his first game with Geno Smith, he saw 10 targets and finished with 17.7 fantasy points," Moody wrote. "Smith isn't shy about attacking defenses with the vertical passing game, which benefits Meyers. He should be viewed as a weekly flex matchup option."
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Perhaps because they couldn't get anything going on the ground, the Raiders were willing to air it out plenty against the Patriots in Week 1. The run game should have more success moving forward, but there stands to be game scripts that lean toward the pass.
Brock Bowers is the proverbial No. 1 option in the passing game, but Meyers is not far behind, and his target volume should be consistent. With a bit of tilt toward PPR formats, Meyers is a weekly starter for his fantasy managers in the WR2 range, or at worst, a high-end flex option.
Moody classifying Meyers as a matchup-dependent flex option seems to have roots in a relative lack of touchdowns. But overall, it's an underestimation of him as a fantasy asset, which is a sentiment that's probably never going away at this point, no matter what Meyers does.