Raiders' Meyers stands firm on offseason trade request

HENDERSON, Nev. (AP) — Las Vegas Raiders receiver Jakobi Meyers’ stance hasn’t changed since training camp. He wants to be traded.

That said, as long as Meyers is still wearing silver and black, he’ll remain professional and dedicated toward his job as quarterback Geno Smith’s No.1 target.

“I’m just trying to play good football,” Meyers said Tuesday after practice. “If I’m here, I’ll play good football. If I’m not here, I go out there and play wherever I’m supposed to be.

“I’m trying to get healthy and play good football. That’s really all it is.”

Meyers, who caught 29 passes for 329 yards through the Raiders' (2-5) first six games, missed Sunday’s game in Kansas City with knee and toe injuries.

Frustrated by the lack of progress on a new contract before the start of this season, the 28-year-old informed the team in August that he wanted to be traded.

He also said the Raiders turned him down.

Meyers, who will be 29 on Nov. 9, is in the final season of a three-year, $33 million contract he signed in 2023.

The NFL trade deadline is Nov. 4.

The seventh-year pro said he hasn’t discussed his contract with the Raiders since first expressing his feelings. Instead, he’s trying to stay focused on what he can do to help jump-start an offensive unit that is generating 182.7 yards passing per game, fourth-lowest in the NFL.

“That’s too much for me,” Meyers said about discussing his contract. “I just want to be where my feet are. They know how I feel. It’s no reason for me to keep going back crying to them, ‘Can you get me out of here?’

"Like, if you move me, you move me. But for the meantime, I got some real people that I care about next to me. I’m trying to make sure I’m being my best self for them.”

Rookie wideout Jack Bech said Meyers has been a tremendous mentor for him, as the veteran leads by example, continuing to live in the present while not allowing his contract dispute to infiltrate the locker room.

“He’s out here trying to get better every day,” Bech said. “He’s helping the young guys, he’s helping me and Dont’e (Thornton) understand the game, understand the ins and outs of the league, and just being able to know how to get better every day and how to attack the game from a physical and mental standpoint.

“You hear a lot of stories about young guys coming into rooms where the vets don’t really help them out, (but) 'Kobi and Tre (Tucker) have been nothing short but just awesome, just helping us learn and grow.”

Added Tucker: "As you come along in this league, you understand that there’s business that obviously gets done, that’s the nature of the business,” Tucker said. “But at the same time, you just try to stay focused on what’s going on. And right now, he’s a Raider, and that’s what we’re focused on.

“I know he wants to be here. I want him to be here. But at the end of the day, there’s business that goes on outside of this, so we just control what we can control.”

___

AP NFL coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl