When one of your fantasy football picks works out, it is hard to not be excited. There is no better feeling than having one of your late round picks working out. In recent years, Alvin Kamara, Brandon Ayiuk, and DK Metcalf were players selected late in drafts, only to push teams into the playoffs. This article is going to highlight one of my favorite late round targets in fantasy drafts for the 2021 season.
Jakobi Meyers, New England Patriots, WR (2019 UDFA)
Rookie Season
Like most undrafted free agents in the NFL, it took Jakobi Meyers a little while to become involved. It was not until Week 6 that he saw more than three targets. He never really became a big part of the offense his rookie season.
Meyers finished the year with 26 catches on 41 targets for 359 yards. He finished 5th and 4th on the team in targets and receiving yards. With so little opportunity in his rookie year, Meyers was essentially a forgotten man in fantasy football leagues heading into the 2020 season.
Sophomore Season
As a Sophomore, Meyers got off to another slow start. In the first five games of the 2020 season, Meyers had one reception on one target for just seven yards. Not only was Meyers not targeted much early, but he was also inactive for Week 4 and did not play in Week 5. It was not until the team lost Julian Edelman (to injury) that we really got to see just what Meyers was capable of.
From Weeks 6-17, Meyers only had one week with less than five targets; a stark change from the start of his season. He even had three weeks with double digit targets. Meyers accounted for approximately 30% of the WR targets for the Patriots.
One of the reasons he may have been targeted so often is because he caught nearly 73% of all passes directed towards him (25th in the league among qualified WR). Another reason could be that he was fairly decent at generating yards. Meyers ranked 29th in the league in yards per target and 10th in yards per route run according to PlayerProfiler.
Meyers would end up leading the Patriots in nearly all receiving metrics in 2020. He caught 59 of his 81 targets for 729 receiving yards.
Touchdowns?
The biggest downside to Meyers so far has been his lack of touchdowns. Through two seasons he does not have a single receiving touchdown; but he does have two passing touchdowns. In 2020, Meyers only had five red zone targets, ranking 94th among all qualified WRs. Based on what is coming out of Patriots training camp, Meyers has been getting multiple RZ reps, and he is feeling a bit more comfortable there.
Jakobi Meyers red-zone work. pic.twitter.com/kG7TPVBxNL
— Andrew Callahan (@_AndrewCallahan) August 17, 2021
Through two preseason games Meyers has been heavily involved. He has four receptions, on six targets, with 67 yards and a touchdown. His touchdown did not come in the red zone. But it is a sign that we should be able to expect some big plays from him this season.
Conclusion
Meyers has proven that he is an efficient pass-catcher. He has also shown that he has an innate ability to generate a lot of yards. So far in training camp, Meyers has been the favorite target of both Cam Newton and Mac Jones.
Meyers should be in for a big workload no matter who is the QB. The biggest question we should have about Meyers is whether he will be able to score any touchdowns. Again, based on what we are seeing in camp, Meyers is working on that part of his game. With even just a few touchdowns he’s will vastly out produce his fantasy football ADP of 196 (17th round). I am going to be targeting Jakobi Meyers in the later rounds of my fantasy football drafts over the next few weeks.
