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Paul Gutierrez, ESPN Staff Writer
HENDERSON, Nev. — Las Vegas Raiders receiver Jakobi Meyers said he harbors no ill will toward Denver Broncos safety Kareem Jackson, whose head shot in the season opener knocked him out of the game, put him in concussion protocol and forced him to miss last weekend’s road loss to the Buffalo Bills.
Meyers told ESPN on Thursday that he doesn’t remember the hit. He’s since cleared concussion protocol, was a full participant in practice Thursday for the first time since the hit and is on track to play against the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Raiders’ home opener at Allegiant Stadium on Sunday night.
“I mean, I understand the game I signed up for,” said Meyers, who acknowledged he did not travel with the team to West Virginia for practices last week or Buffalo as he remained in Las Vegas to get healthy.
“So we try and go out there and make plays. We’ve got to protect ourselves at all times and do what we can best.”
Meyers called being in the protocol more “boring” than hard.
“You’re just kind of waiting,” he said. “You feel like you can go out there and make plays, but you know you’re not quite ready. So just trying to be patient, and just wait until I knew I was all the way healed or wait until I knew I was ready to go out there and play again.”
Meyers signed a three-year, $33 million free agent contract with Las Vegas this offseason. In his debut against the Broncos, he had a game-high nine catches for 81 yards with two touchdowns — the first multi-TD catch game of his five-year career.
It was on his final catch, though, a 7-yard pickup on third-and-8 at midfield, when he slipped on the wet grass and was hit in the head by Jackson, who was flagged for unnecessary roughness and later fined $14,819 by the league. The 15-yard penalty gave the Raiders a first down and allowed them to run out the clock for the 17-16 victory.
“That was fun, it was fun for sure,” Meyers said of his 3- and 6-yard TD catches that gave the Raiders 7-0 and 17-16 leads with the PATs, respectively.
“Definitely because of the timing of them. I felt like they really helped the team at the point that they came. So, it was just fun, man. I enjoyed that.”