Not everybody thought the New England Patriots made the best decision to sign wideout JuJu Smith-Schuster to a three-year, $33 million contract, while allowing Jakobi Meyers to leave for the Las Vegas Raiders.
Count Devin McCourty as someone that thinks it was a mistake.
The legendary safety shared the locker room with Meyers, who joined the Patriots as an undrafted rookie in 2019 and worked his way up to the top of the depth chart as the best receiver on the roster. It’s the kind of work ethic that shouldn’t be taken for granted.
McCourty not only saw a great player on the football field, but he envisioned Meyers being a shining example for future young players joining the team.
“I’m not going to lie, I would have liked to see Jakobi back over JuJu,” said McCourty, when appearing on the “Green Light with Chris Long” podcast. “Just my personal feeling. I just think Jakobi is a guy, he’s an undrafted free agent who panned out because of hard work.
“…To me, when you have guys like that, when you look at Jakobi, you can guess that his better years are still in front of him. I just think having that in the locker room for young guys, and I think especially in that [receiver] room over the years—you lose [Julian] Edelman, we haven’t replaced that room with a guy who is New England culture. You just don’t have it.”
McCourty noted that all of the top receivers on the Patriots’ roster came from other teams, including Smith-Schuster, DeVante Parker and Kendrick Bourne.
It’s hard to argue with McCourty from strictly a locker room standpoint. While Smith-Schuster might be more talented, Meyers is the kind of player the Patriots have typically coveted over the years—not a lot of flash but a hard-nosed worker.
The Patriots won six Super Bowls with players like that on the roster and created the greatest dynasty in NFL history. But times are clearly changing, and the way the Patriots go about their business might be changing, too.
