New England Patriots: Jakobi Meyers Proving Pivotal To Offensive Resurgence

The New England Patriots enter Week 11 with a chance to get back to .500 with victory over the struggling Houston Texans, and a significant reason for their resurgence is the play of wide receiver Jakobi Meyers.

New England’s offensive skill-position players have been widely maligned, with head coach Bill Belichick viewed as having not put enough talent around quarterback Cam Newton.

However, even as Tom Brady struggled to excel amid a dearth of reliable pass-catching options in 2019, Meyers — an undrafted free agent last year — stood out as a sporadic bright spot.

This season he has shone more consistently and has emerged as a favorite target for Newton, playing a pivotal role in the Patriots’ back-to-back wins over the New York Jets and the Baltimore Ravens.

Meyers caught 12 of his 14 targets against the Jets for 169 yards and followed that impressive display by catching five passes for 59 yards in the defeat of the Ravens, which saw him throw a touchdown to Rex Burkhead on a trick play in the second quarter. That score gave the Patriots a lead they would not surrender.

Over the last four games, Meyers has 37 targets and has caught 27 of them. Against the Jets, the Patriots’ highest Expected Points Added per play came on pass targets to Meyers, according to data collated by The Athletic’s Ben Baldwin.

EPA per play measures the impact of a player on the score of the game on a per play basis. Pass targets to Meyers in the win over the Jets had an EPA per play of 0.76.

The Success Rate — which gauges the proportion of plays that contributed that resulted in positive EPA — of those targets was 69 percent.

Though he did not lead the Patriots in receiving EPA per play in Week 10, he still had a significant influence on New England’s victory over the Ravens. In addition to the accuracy he displayed on a touchdown throw that — according to the NFL’s NextGen Stats — had a completion probability of 34 percent, targets to Meyers against Baltimore had an EPA per play of 0.42 and a Success Rate of 57 percent.

In other words, Meyers has become integral to the Patriots offense. That is partially a reflection of their lack of alternatives at the skill position but is also a credit to a player who has overcome being undrafted and has outperformed New England’s 2019 first-round pick, wideout N’Keal Harry.

And, facing a Houston Texans defense that ranks 22nd in Football Outsiders pass defense DVOA, Newton and Meyers should have plenty of opportunities to further develop their burgeoning rapport.

Meyers has arguably been the star of the Patriots’ recent revival and, if recent trends continue, he will have a critical role to play in New England potentially improving to 5-5.