Who Should I Start? Jakobi Meyers or Jaxon Smith-Njigba

Friday, March 15, 6:01 PM

The Las Vegas Raiders restructured wide receiver Jakobi Meyers' contract on Friday to create $4.125 million in salary cap space for 2024. Meyers joined the Raiders in free agency last offseason and signed a three-year, $33 million deal. He immediately paid off for the Raiders as the No. 2 behind All-Pro Davante Adams, as Meyers finished his first year in Sin City with 71 receptions on 106 targets for 807 yards and a career-high eight touchdowns in 16 starts. The 27-year-old pass-catcher has now gone over 800 receiving yards in each of the last three seasons, although keeping that trend alive could be more difficult in 2024 with the Raiders potentially using a rookie signal-caller under center for much of the year. Still, he should at least be in play as a WR3/flex option on a weekly basis with a solid target floor.

Monday, January 8, 5:25 AM

Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba caught three of his five targets for 14 yards in Sunday's win over the Arizona Cardinals. The receptions were tied with tight ends Will Dissly and Colby Parkinson for the team lead but made for a quiet end to a modest debut season for the Ohio State product. Selected 20th overall in the 2023 draft, there were hopes that Smith-Njigba would replicate the first-year successes of his former college teammates Garrett Wilson and Christian Olave. As it was, Smith-Njigba proved to be firmly entrenched as the third receiver on Seattle's depth chart and was probably lucky to see the amount of work that he did. His production was also hindered by the routes designed for him, as his average depth of target of 5.8 yards was among the lowest in the league. His rookie year will conclude with 63 receptions for 628 yards and four touchdowns in 17 games.