NFL Notes: Patriots, Rams, Washington

Patriots

Patriots’ WR Jakobi Meyers revealed that he signed with the Patriots specifically because they drafted WR N’Keal Harry in the first round the same year.

“So this is a story that I’ve never told anybody in my life,” Meyers said via Zack Cox of NESN.com. “And you know N’Keal is my brother. I love N’Keal. We are with each other every day. But when it came down to picking teams, I had a couple of teams. So I looked at all the teams who offered me, and it’s: did they draft a receiver? And if they drafted a receiver, where did they draft him? The highest-drafted that was a receiver was the Patriots, and I said, so if they drafted a receiver in the first round, I’m going to go in there and show them I could play with a first-rounder. I was just kind of betting on myself.”

Rams

Rams’ QB Matthew Stafford isn’t concerned about not getting voted to the Pro Bowl roster this season, while HC Sean McVay said that Stafford is easily a Pro Bowler in his mind.

“Not really, to be honest with you,” Stafford said, via Pro Football Talk. “[I] just go about my day, continue to prepare, try to play as good as I possibly can for the guys in our locker room and our coaching staff, and our fans. So that’s kind of how I feel about it, to be honest with you.”

“I think when you just look at how vital and instrumental Matthew has been to our success, the things that he’s overcome, the things he’s played through, the production, the way he’s elevated everybody’s play around him,” McVay said. “I can’t think of anybody I’d rather have leading our team. He’s a Pro Bowler to me without a doubt.”

• Rams HC Sean McVay is ecstatic to have RB Cam Akers back from the injured reserve given it allows them to run different packages: “Like, holy s***. You get him back, that’s unbelievable for our team…you can start to run some different personnels, put pressure on people.” (Jourdan Rodrigue)
• Rams’ HC Sean McVay said he expects S Jordan Fuller to return this Friday. (Gary Klein)

Washington

Washington HC Ron Rivera said their goal is to reach the playoffs and would be “tremendously disappointed” if they miss out. 

“I’m not going to approach anything just saying, ‘Well, I hope we can finish this year with a winning record.’ No. I want to get into the playoffs,” said Rivera, via Nicki Jhabvala of the Washington Post. “I want to win in the playoffs. I want to win it all, and if I could win all 20 games, I’ll win all 20 games. That’s my mentality. It’s always been my mentality. It will always be my mentality. I hate to lose. . . . Would we be disappointed? Tremendously disappointed.”

As for Washington’s disappointing 27-17 loss to the Eagles in Week 15, Rivera feels that they did “more than we needed to” and got ahead of themselves in several instances. 

“The one thing that really stood out in my mind more than anything else is just we try to do more than we needed to, and that was something that I thought we could have handled better,” Rivera said. “ … We’ve got to stay in the moment. We can’t catch the ball and run until we’ve caught the ball. We can’t make the tackle until we’ve defeated the blocker. … We were trying to do more than we needed to without finishing the task before we move on to the next thing.”

Rivera mentioned that it is important to remain healthy during the final stretch of the season in order to prevent distractions and stay focused. 

“I really do believe all you need is a chance,” Rivera said. “A big part of it, too, though, is being healthy at the right time, getting players back at the right opportunity, not having a big distraction, being able to stay focused as you trend toward something. We’ll find out.”