FOXBORO — Before each practice, N.C. State’s receivers coach George McDonald watched his freshman quarterback and saw potential.

It was in the way Jakobi Meyers warmed up. As he loosened up, he’d catch incoming passes easily with one hand. When practice started, the underclassman showed a special type of athleticism that made him a nightmare to try to take down.

McDonald has been coaching wideouts since 2001. He’s coached eight current NFL players, including Allen Hurns, Travis Benjamin and Phillip Dorsett. For him, it was easy to see that Meyers should have been playing receiver.

“He was a super athlete,” McDonald said. “Like most guys, he was trying to figure out college football and how to be a college quarterback. I would just joke around with him when he was warming up. If he didn’t want to do all the nitty-gritty stuff at quarterback, he could come just be a freelance receiver for me and he could be pretty good at it.”

Convincing Meyers to make the switch took some time. He’d always been a quarterback and wanted to play quarterback for the Wolfpack. But McDonald kept pressing Meyers into the next year, in 2016, when the red-shirt freshman was eligible to play. Finally, N.C. State coach Dave Doeren gave Meyers an option.

“It was like, 'well, we’ve got Ryan Finley, but we want you to play. Would you rather sit here on the bench as a quarterback or would you rather play as a receiver?’ ” Meyers recalled. “Real simple.”

Meyers agreed to the switch, but held out hope there was a chance he’d still play quarterback. He figured if he didn’t like the change, he’d transfer. It took some time, but by 2017, Meyers had fully committed himself to the receiver position.

Three years later, he’s an NFL receiver for the Patriots and is catching passes from Tom Brady.

“There are moments all through my life that I was like ‘what if I did this, what if I did that?’” Meyers said. “I’m just happy with the way it played out.

His formative years

Meyers actually had been preparing to play receiver for most of his athletic life.

It started at Arabia Mountain High School in Lithonia, Georgia. He was a standout baseball and basketball player before joining the football team as a junior. Each sport helped him develop the type of footwork that’s allowed him to get open against opposing cornerbacks.

In baseball, the footwork helped him to have great range at shortstop. On the basketball court, he was a nightmare matchup for opposing players, using quick feet to play lock-down defense. As a quarterback, he was a dual threat, using his footwork to evade pass-rushers.

“I took all the little things I had from those sports and took it into playing receiver,” Meyers said.

Stanley Pritchett, his high school football coach, knew he had something special. The coach lost his starting quarterback midway through the year so Meyers was called upon to play. That’s all he needed.

“He didn’t start until the fifth game of his junior year,” Pritchett said. “We had a quarterback who was leading the county in passing. He was one of our top players and he got hurt during the game, so we put (Meyers) in. Then the legend of Jakobi Meyers started.

“I would always tell him he was destined to be great. I remember we had a fake punt against a team and he threw it like 70 yards and he had a broken hand.”

Meyers didn’t have any dreams of playing receiver. Even Pritchett, who played in the NFL for nine seasons as a fullback, thought his student was bound for the NFL as a quarterback. Instead, Meyers learned through playing quarterback what a quarterback wants.

“Just being able to see the field and understand what a quarterback is thinking,” Meyers said. “I still have that clock in my head of how long they’ve got to get rid of the ball before somebody (gets there). … I’m not perfect; if I was, I’d still be playing quarterback. The little things I did have, I tried to hold on to.”

Making the commitment

When Meyers started to learn how to play receiver, he aimed to study successful NFL players with similar athletic traits. He aimed to find players who weren’t the fastest, but relied on route running to get open.

He knew in order to have success, he’d have to rely on his footwork to get open. That’s why he started to watch videos on YouTube of players like Keenan Allen and Chad Johnson.

“I know I wasn’t the fastest guy, but I was like, 'if I can be good with my feet and learn how to stop before they can stop, I’ll be able to (succeed),” Meyers said. “I knew I could catch the ball. I was able to create just a little bit of separation because I knew I wasn’t fast enough to just run past guys. Just guys with good feet who ran good routes. I just tried to watch a lot.”

McDonald was impressed with Meyers almost instantly. He showed a high football IQ. He didn’t just learn what he was supposed to do on each play, he learned what every receiver’s responsibility was. As a former quarterback, he had a high understanding of timing, angles and soft spots in coverages. It was almost easy for him to get open thanks to his knowledge of what a quarterback wants combined with his footwork.

Before McDonald knew it, Meyers raised the level of all the receivers around him at N.C. State. In his first full year as a receiver, Meyers caught 63 passes for 727 yards. Last year, he finished with 92 catches for 1,047 yards.

“He’s really tough mentally and physically,” McDonald said. “He has really good short-area quickness. His catch radius was really good and then I think the thing was the most notable for the wide receiver room was he was ultra-competitive. He was one of those guys who always thought he was open and always could do whatever needed to be done. He really helped raise the level of expectation and the standard of performance in the receiver room.”

A familiar route?

Meyers declared for the NFL Draft a year early. His coaches knew his draft stock hinged on his 40-yard dash time. Meyers ran a 4.63, but was still hopeful he’d hear his name called.

He was surprised that 28 receivers were drafted throughout the three-day process but he was not among them.

“I was hearing a lot of good things,” Meyers said. “I knew that my 40 would kind of play a big part whether I fell or didn’t get drafted. I guess I did kind of expect (to get drafted). I thought I would go somewhere. Just seeing other people go I’m like, ‘alright, if he got drafted, maybe I’ll get drafted.’ But God don’t make mistakes.”

When his named didn't get called, the decision to sign with the Patriots was an easy one. Although the receiver position in Foxboro is historically tough to play for rookies and newcomers, Meyers looked at it as a challenge. He told himself that if he “could make it here I could make it anywhere.”

During the summer, Meyers stood out and made the 53-man roster. He wasn't the fastest player on the field, but he understood how to get open. He compared it to another former quarterback who transitioned to receiver — Julian Edelman.

“I know I’m not the fastest guy, so I’ve got to find out what works for me,” Meyers said. “We’ve got a couple of guys here who aren’t the fastest guys, but they know how to get open. Like Jules knows how to get open with his physical playing style. I feel like I can just go left and right really quickly. I think I can shake here, shake there and get my hands free. I know once I get my hands free, I’m fine.”

Through six weeks, Meyers is performing better than most of the receivers who were drafted. Of the 28 receivers selected, only nine have more receiving yards than Meyers (120). Other than two players, Meyers has more production than every receiver drafted in the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh rounds this season.

“This is really only his third full year of playing receiver,” McDonald said. “I think the more he goes and gets coached and develops, I think he really has a bright future.”

mdaniels@providencejournal.com

On Twitter @MarkDanielsPJ