Patriots Expected to Sign Chiefs WR JuJu Smith-Schuster
NFL - The New England Patriots are signing former Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster to a three-year deal worth $33 million, according to a report from ESPN's Jeremy Fowler.
After five seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Smith-Schuster signed a one-year deal with the Kansas City Chiefs in 2022. He caught 78 targets on 101 targets for 933 yards and three touchdowns. His 9.6 yards per target was the highest since Smith-Shcuster's rookie season with the Steelers.
Smith-Schuster's 10.6% DVOA and 185 receiving DYAR were 24th and 21st among receivers in 2022, his best placements since 2018.
Smith-Schuster is the third free-agent wide receiver to receive a contract with $11 million in APY. He joins former New England Patriot Jakobi Meyers and former Green Bay Packer Allen Lazard, who signed with the Raiders and Jets, respectively.
Comments
14 comments, Last at 19 Mar 2023, 12:34am
#1 by bubba37 // Mar 15, 2023 - 4:01pm
Juju gets the same money as Jakobi Meyers. Patriots basically traded Meyers for Smith-Schuster. According to DVOA, Meyers was better every year except for the last, when they were about equal, but JuJu was being thrown to by Patrick Mahomes and schemed open by Andy Reid. The Patriots almost certainly made a mistake: they should've kept Meyers.
#7 by KnotMe // Mar 15, 2023 - 4:36pm
Yeah, that is my read of it. I guess they didn't want to go higher for Meyers but this still seems like a parallel move or downgrade. Well, we knew they were probably gonna be the worse team in their division so this doesn't really change anything.
#10 by MJK // Mar 15, 2023 - 8:37pm
Myers is probably more reliable in getting open and making the catch. Juju is much better at YAC. From what I read, he offers a bit more positional flexibility as well. Both can play slot or Z, but apparently Myers is more comfortable in the slot. Not sure how true that last is.
Myers didn’t say he didn’t want to play for the Pats, but did say he wanted the Raiders snd the Raiders wanted him. Sounds like sn implication he wanted out of NE. He did single handed my lose them a game and ultimately cost them a playoff north, so there might have been some residual bad blood there.
#11 by [Very] Special Teams // Mar 15, 2023 - 8:51pm
Meyer's tweet about on JJSS signing was "cold world". I think he wanted to be back in NE, but Bill gave him the ol', "if ya come back begging for peanuts, I might take ya" cold shoulder. NE gave JJSS the same money, wanted him more.
Bill gave JC Jackson that same cold shoulder last year...and that turned out great! But I have waaaay more faith in his ability to assess and project performance in his defense than WRs.
#12 by Lost Ti-Cats Fan // Mar 16, 2023 - 8:20am
Pretty sure NE would have kept Meyers over JuJu if that had been an option. Looks more likely to me that Meyers has simply had enough of the NE circus. Sure, Patricia was gone, but the guy who hired Patricia is still there and running the show, he just hired back another old crony of his to lead the show, his son is still coaching on the team (who I'm sure is 100% qualified for his job and just randomly ended up working for his father rather than any of the 31 other NFL teams who would want to employ him).
Not sure Meyers will find his new situation any better, but sometimes you need to walk away from a bad relationship and hope for better.