The Jaguars made some noise at the trade deadline on Tuesday when they sent two Day 3 picks to Las Vegas in exchange for Jakobi Meyers. Meyers will provide immediate relief to a banged-up Jaguars pass-catching corps. Let’s dig into what this trade means from a fantasy standpoint.
JAGUARS PASS CATCHERS
- The Jacksonville WR corps is currently up in the air after Brian Thomas Jr. exited Week 9 with an ankle injury and Dyami Brown left to get evaluated for a concussion. Meanwhile, Travis Hunter is on injured reserve after suffering a knee injury at practice, though Ian Rapoport reports that he’s not expected to miss the rest of the season and will return from I.R. at some point.
- The biggest question in the short term at this point is what this trade signals for the health of the other Jags WRs. Per Adam Schefter, BTJ has a “low-grade high ankle sprain” and has a chance to play this week, and concussion absences don’t typically extend beyond one week. If he’s ready with the playbook and all that, Meyers could immediately assume a pretty massive role given the current state of the WR group. Meyers and Parker Washington may be Trevor Lawrence‘s top two options in Week 10.
- Once everyone is healthy, BTJ, Hunter, and Meyers should settle in as the three starting wide receivers with Brown and Washington falling into complementary roles. In the meantime, Liam Coen already announced that Washington will be the primary slot man (Hunter’s role) with Meyers filling in outside. Given how effective Washington has been so far this year, he could retain relevanat value in the short term, though Hunter’s return would hurt him a good bit if he comes back actually healthy.
JAKOBI MEYERS
- If he can pick up the playbook quickly and BTJ misses time, this is a pretty good spot in the short term for Meyers. We’ve also seen what his usage looked like in Vegas — zero touchdowns so far and hasn’t recorded more than 39 receiving yards in a game since Sept. 21 — and it’s not pretty, so a change of scenery is much appreciated.
- Once BTJ is healthy, Meyers is likely more of a flex option than surefire weekly fantasy starter with BTJ controlling a low to mid-20s target share and Brown/Washington still mixing in, but he certainly has more weekly boom upside in this offense compared to his old one.
- Once Hunter and Brenton Strange get back healthy, this will be a messy target projection every week, and Meyers may struggle to get the volume necessary to warrant starting every week.
- In general, given his struggles in Vegas and the short-term outlook with Hunter and Strange (and BTJ and Brown for Week 10, at least), this is an upgrade to Meyers’ fantasy stock.
RAIDERS PASS CATCHERS
- It feels like it’s been years since we were worried about Brock Bowers‘ Week 1 snap rate. Bowers returned from injury in Week 9 and immediately posted 12/127/3 on 13 targets (33.3% share). With Jakobi out of the picture, Bowers is the rest-of-season TE1. Fantasy managers who spent an early second-round pick on Bowers have likely been frustrated with his production so far, but he’ll have a chance to make that price tag worth it over the second half of the year.
- Michael Mayer likely remains involved with Las Vegas embracing 12 personnel as their base offense. Mayer out-routed WR3 Tyler Lockett (in his first game with the Raiders, admittedly) 31-12 in Week 9. Jack Bech didn’t play an offensive snap on Sunday, while Dont’e Thornton was a healthy scratch. The Raiders are clearly dissatisfied with the production of their rookie wideouts — though they’ll have to play now without Meyers — so keeping Mayer out there on the majority of snaps makes sense.
- Tre Tucker has an 18% target share this year and has already flashed the weekly ceiling with a three-touchdown outburst in Week 3, and he’s quietly been quite efficient on a per-target basis (9.9 yards per target) this year. It’s unclear whether this offense can actually sustain multiple fantasy-relevant pass catchers (likely not given Jakobi’s production pre-trade), but this is certainly an upgrade for Tucker too, and his role could be massive if Bowers ever misses time again.
- Lockett seems to be the frontrunner for the WR2 role based on last week’s usage with Bech and Thornton behind him. None are even close to relevant, and Bech/Thornton could usurp Lockett again if the Raiders decide to use the rest of the season to see what they have in their young players.
