How Could Meyers Have A Good Year And Harry Couldn't?

How could Jakobi Meyers have a good season and N'Keal Harry not with Cam Newton? That's easy to explain. Newton would look for the first, maybe second guy and then go to his security blanket. Security blankets get more targets than everyone else, that much is common sense.

Over the Patriots first six games, Newton threw 131 passes. 31 went to Edelman, 24 went to Harry, 18 went to Byrd. 16 went to Burkhead. That's 89 of the 131 passes. Edelman was targeted 23.66%, Harry 18.36%, Byrd 13.74%, Burkhead 12.21%.That was a good jump between Edelman and Harry. Why because Edelman was the number one guy and the security blanket.

Meyers assumed Edelman's role the next 10 games. Which was the slot and security blanket. Over that span, Newton would target Meyers 31.22%, Byrd 23.67%, White 20.68%, Harry 13.92%, Burkhead 7.17%, and Izzo 5.49%.  Meyers was the security blanket. 

Now I know some are going to say that Harry was only open 25% of the time. However, Harry was supposed to be a contested catch receiver or at least that's what majority of the fan base believes. That means throwing him 50/50 balls where the defender has a 50% chance of getting the ball. Those type of receivers don't have to get open on every play, they just have to catch the ball. Harry has only dropped 2 of his 81 targets over his career. In 2020 Harry caught 71.4% of contested targets and was ranked 7th. So there wasn't an issue of him not coming down with the ball. 

The fact is Cam stopped throwing Harry the ball. He locked in on Meyers, Byrd, and White after Edelman went out. In fact the entire season we could see guys open and Newton would throw it to Edelman, Meyers, White, or Byrd. 

Why after the 49ers game did Newton stop targeting Harry, I don't know but he did. Harry went from second in targets down to fourth. After the first six games, Harry was on pace to have 68 targets from Newton alone, not counting week four. Harry only ended up with 57 targets on the year. 

So to answer how Meyers could have a good year and Harry couldn't, it boils down to targets or lack there of. And again, to those who Harry wasn't open. If that's why he wasn't getting the ball, then he absolutely wasn't being used right. And you already know this if you believe that Harry was supposed to be the contested catch guy.

Now if majority of the fan base wants to admit they were wrong, and that Harry wasn't supposed to be a contested catch receiver, than we can take off the fact that he wasn't used right but I don't see that happening. So blame fails on Newton and possibly McDaniels for Harry's lack of targets and thus lack of productivity in 2020.