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. Washington could be a fun spot starter in Week 10 depending on how injuries shake out, but his value will quickly go to zero.
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.
