Meyers’ rise no surprise
NC State coach could see transition on the way
Growing more stunned by the selection about not hearing his receiver’s name called in the NFL draft, North Carolina State football coach Dave Doeren didn’t have to wait long to feel better about Jakobi Meyers’ football future.
“It was funny,” Doeren said by phone from his office in Raleigh. “The minute he wasn’t selected, seconds later it came out he was signed by the Patriots and I just kind of chuckled like, ‘Yeah, I bet they were happy he fell to them.’ ”
Doeren was convinced the Patriots had done it again, beaten the rest of the NFL to a sleeper who will make them
look smart for signing him. He said he’s not surprised that Meyers has stood out in practice leading up to the Patriots first preseason game last night against the Lions.
“Especially with their system,” Doeren said. “He’s a route runner. He’s a surehanded guy. He’s very intelligent guy and he doesn’t make a lot of mistakes. And obviously, those are the kind of players they look for.”
Meyers always will be linked indirectly to Tom Brady’s favorite target, injured Julian Edelman, because both athletes started their careers as quarterbacks and both initially committed to Kent State.
Edelman stayed at quarterback throughout his collegiate career and Meyers never did head to Kent State, signing instead with NC State, where he was recruited as a quarterback and switched to receiver.
“We had Ryan Finley at quarterback and Jakobi wasn’t going to play and we had a receiver issue and he showed great athleticism,” Doeren said of the switch. “It was more just us wanting to get our best players, best athletes, on the field.”
Once the idea made sense to Doeren, he didn’t waste any time discussing it with Meyers. He didn’t set up a formal appointment in his office.
“We were in the middle of practice and I just said, ‘Look, man, you see what’s going on. Can you go over there (pointing to where receivers were stationed) and help us?’ He went over there and started making all these grabs,” Doeren said. “I said, ‘All right, I think this is where you need to stay.’ It took him a little bit, you know, like anybody to get over the fact that obviously he wanted to be a quarterback, but he saw a future in it.”
Doeren has a little Bill Belichick in him in that both men creatively can see bright futures for players that others might not see.
That trait explains why in Doeren’s first two full recruiting classes, NC State had 11 players drafted, two in the first round: Defensive end Bradley Chubb went No. 5 overall to the Broncos in 2018 and the Vikings selected center Garrett Bradbury with the 18th pick of the first round in 2019. Neither player was particularly highly recruited out of high school.
As a young assistant to Mark Mangino, the only of University of Kansas’ past 11 football coaches to have a winning record at the school, Doeren showed his ability to project talent when he recruited former Patriots cornerback Aqib Talib, who also stood out at receiver for the Jayhawks.
“He had a tough upbringing,” Doeren said of Talib, a two-star recruit, per Rivals rankings. “I remember being in his mother’s apartment and she said, ‘If you take my son, he ain’t coming home because he needs to get the hell out of here. You need to get him to grow up and I don’t want him to come back here.’ It took him a little bit to grow up. Once he did, he was offense, defense, special teams, and he was a two-way starter. You just don’t see that anymore.”
Meyers doesn’t have the natural athletic ability of Talib, few on the planet do, but he does share his strong feel for the game, per Doeren. Meyers ran a 4.63 40 at the NFL draft combine, second-slowest among receivers timed there, likely the reason he wasn’t drafted. His fellow NC State receiver Kelvin Harmon went to the Redskins in the sixth round after running a 4.6 at the combine.
“I thought Jakobi and Kelvin Harmon were both way undervalued,” Doeren said. “They get into all the measurables. I just look at really good football players and that’s what those guys were.”
Competing for a roster spot comes with a lot of stress, but Doeren said he’s not worried about how Meyers will handle that.
“He’s a very consistent performer and really, the bigger the game, the better he played,” Doeren said. “He’s a clutch guy and handles pressure well.”
He took the new position quickly, according to his college coach.
“His biggest thing was learning how to get over a drop because he expects to catch everything, very hard on himself,” Doeren said. “That’s probably the biggest thing with him, just maturing through that. After he got over that, he was probably about as consistent a performer as we had.”
It’s early, but so far, Meyers has carried that consistency into training camp.