Jakobi Meyers’ tenure with the Raiders came to an end on Tuesday and his trade to the Jacksonville Jaguars marked the end of a contact stalemate between Meyers and the Raiders that dragged out for months.
According to Sports Illustrated insider Hondo Carpenter, Meyers and the Raiders were moving toward a contract extension before former GM Tom Telesco was fired, and the veteran wide receiver could have made a significant leverage play for a new contract in the weeks before the start of the season.
Ultimately, Meyers chose not to use his leverage against the organization and opted to not holdout before the season.
Had he held out, Meyers could have potentially forced a deal or a trade (which he was requesting at the time), and many thought that was the play he should have made in August.
But according to Carpenter, Meyers was never willing to hold out and privately shared his reasoning with the Raiders’ insider in August.
“I [would] understand if he had held out because he had leverage and it would have forced a trade,” Carpenter said on the Las Vegas Raiders Insider podcast.
“His belief, and he told me this a while ago, was ‘I signed a contract and that’s my word.’ That’s why you may remember the rumors were out there [wondering] was he going to out and I… said he’s not holding out. It’s just not him. I understand why some people do, its a business… but I think the way he handled it was [like] a man of integrity.”
It will be interesting to see what the Jaguars do with Meyers after the season, and it has been reported they are open to signing him to a long-term deal.
If they don’t re-sign Meyers, the Jaguars can let him leave in free agency and he will factor into the compensatory pick formula in the same way he would have if he played out the final year of his contract in Las Vegas.
In theory, the Jaguars could be in line for a fourth or fifth-round compensatory pick in 2027 and recoup some of the trade capital they sent to the Raiders on Tuesday.
As for the Raiders, they can now focus on the two wide receivers they drafted in April.
Meyers’ departure should give Jack Bech and Dont’e Thornton Jr. plenty of opportunities in the second half of the season.
Both rookies were mildly disappointing through the first eight games of the season, and if nothing else, the Raiders should get a good idea of what they have in their young wide receivers going into the offseason.
x: @raidersbeat
And that is EXACTLY why any team… but especially a team like the Raiders, Need a player like Jacoby Meyers. A man of Real INTEGRITY!!! Everything about him shows this – from his discipline to his work ethic to his word. The Jaguars got a Really Great Deal in more ways than one… Help them win a Title JM!!