Jakobi Meyers is firmly on the trade block and with the bye week coming, there’s a chance he has played his final game with the Raiders.
With Meyers contract expiring after the season and so many young wide receivers competing for playing time, trading Meyers might be the prudent thing to do from the standpoint of the organization.
There have been plenty of commenters on Meyers’ contract situation going to back to the offseason, and he had leverage at one time to execute a holdout that might have pushed the Raiders to make a decision on his contract.
Meyers opted to play at the start of the season, but it’s fair to wonder if his contract might be playing a role in his most recent injury situation.
A year ago, we saw Davante Adams show up on the injury report with a hamstring injury while he waited for a trade, and while Meyers’ situation isn’t the same Adams, he did request a trade before the start of the season and the last thing he would want is a significant injury that could complicate his next contract.
Behind the scenes, some are asking questions about the nature of Meyers’ injury and The Athletic’s Ted Nguyen said on Monday he thinks the Raiders were expecting Meyers to play against the Chiefs.
“Jakobi Meyers, there’s trade rumors swirling, but he seemed to try to play pregame, didn’t play and the Raiders are already starved enough for weapons as is,” Nguyen said on the Just Win podcast this week. “And then you don’t have Meyers right before the game. I think they expected him to play and he didn’t play.”
Former Raiders color commentator Lincoln Kennedy talked about Meyers on Monday, as well, and he accidentally referenced Meyers as a “healthy scratch” before correcting himself and calling him a “scratch” on Sunday.
Whether intentional or not, Kennedy definitely seemed a little suspicious.
“Such a young team offensively, such a young team. When you talk about the possible playmakers and when I saw Jakabi Myers, a scratch from yesterday, a couple of things played in my mind and we don’t have to talk about it now. One, the trade rumors,” Kennedy said on the Locked on Raiders Squad Show podcast
“Does this have anything to do with the trade rumors?” Kennedy continued. “I heard it was his knee, so if he’s unhealthy, if that’s the case, we’re really thin at another position, really thin at the wide receiver spot.”
Whatever is going on with Meyers, it might be irrelevant now that the bye week is here and the trade deadline is November 4.
It was once rumored the Raiders had a day two draft pick on the table for Meyers and assuming he is traded in the next two weeks, it will be interesting to see what someone will be willing to give up for him.
From the team standpoint, the emergence of Tre Tucker is likely playing a role in their unwillingness to extend Meyers.
Two weeks ago, offensive coordinator Chip Kelly made a big statement about Tucker, and it went a little under the radar with everything else that was dominating headlines at the time.
“He’s been great, and I think he’s probably our best practice player,” Kelly said of Tucker.
“We always talk about you sync to your level of training. And he trains at such a high level, he’s playing at such a high level. And it’s a great point for all, especially our young players, that you can kind of point out that what you see out of Tre every day, and holy smokes, when you look at the GPS numbers and what he’s running in practice and doing, and then all of a sudden you turn on the tape and he’s doing the same exact thing,” Kelly continued.
“He’s got these three or four passes over 20, getting behind people, but that’s what he does in practice, also. He’s kind of that what you want to show as a guy, like this is how you practice, that means this is how you’re going to play. And he’s a great example of that.”
The following Sunday, Tucker led the team in receptions (5) and receiving yards (70), and CBS analyst Jonathan made an interesting comment about him after a 37-yard reception in the fourth quarter.
“That connection… between Geno [Smith] and Tre Tucker, he is their no. 1,” Vilma said on the CBS broadcast of the game. “Jakobi Meyers, Chip Kelly may tell me that, but Jakobi Meyers is not no. 1, it’s Tre Tucker. Geno has a favorite guy and that’s him.”
x: @raidersbeat
Geno Smith should be riding the pine and Cam Miller should be the starter with Pickett backing him up. We need to see what Millers got and it really can’t be any worse than what we have seen out of Smith. Miller might be the future and we know Smith won’t be.