The Jets recently acquired wide receiver John Mecchi III via trade and he has already played in three games for the team. Today we explain Mechi in detail.
The 25-year-old Mechie stands at 5’11” and 187 pounds and was a second-round pick out of Alabama in 2022. After missing the entire 2022 season, Mechie started three games and caught 40 passes for 412 yards and a touchdown over the past two seasons with the Texans. However, he was traded to the Eagles earlier this season and hasn’t played much.
Mechi’s background is unique as he was born in Taiwan, lived in Ghana and Canada as a young child and is of Nigerian heritage. He attended high school in Maryland and then spent a year in New Jersey before moving to Alabama as a four-star recruit.
As a true freshman in 2019, Mechi played in all 13 games but caught only four passes and recorded one tackle.
However, in 2020, an injury to Jaylen Waddle enabled Mechie to start 11 of 13 games. He posted two games where he gained over 150 receiving yards and had 55 catches for over 900 yards and six touchdowns.
In 2021, he started every game and was named a second-team All-SEC selection as he finished third in the conference with 96 catches and 1,142 yards. He also had eight touchdown receptions, but suffered a serious knee injury at the end of the season.
Despite the injury, Mechi declared for the 2022 draft and was selected in the second round by the Houston Texans. However, he was then diagnosed with a form of leukemia and missed his freshman year due to receiving treatment.
In 2023, he made his NFL debut early in the season and had 16 catches for 158 yards in a reserve role.
Last season Mechie made his first three career starts and scored his first receiving touchdown. He had 24 receptions for 254 yards, with his best numbers posted against Aaron Glenn’s Detroit Lions defense when he had 74 yards on five receptions.
Mecchi also has nine catches for 107 yards in four postseason games.
During the preseason, Mechi was traded to the Eagles, but he did not really get a role with them as he had just four catches in the first seven games. He was eventually traded to the Jets in the Michael Carter II trade.
Since joining New York, Mechie had just one catch in his first game, but then had three catches for 45 yards and a touchdown against the Patriots and a career-high six catches for 65 yards and another touchdown against the Ravens.
Let’s move on to some more in-depth analysis of what Mecchi brings as a player, based on extensive research and film study.
The size of the mechi is not much, the catch radius is small. However, his speed, explosion and acceleration are evident on film.
He couldn’t post any workout numbers during the pre-draft process due to his knee injury, so his last recorded 40-yard dash was a 4.60 when he was in high school. His current 40-yard dash is estimated at around 4.5 seconds.
Scouting reports mostly state that Mechi would be better in the slot at the NFL level, but he said he also enjoys playing outside and has actually played in the slot less than half the time during his career.
Despite some obvious athleticism, Mechi hasn’t really established himself as a guy who will get behind the defense for deep balls, although he has made plenty of downfield catches under the seam and over his back shoulder.
In college, he established himself as a big play threat with a 16.7 yards per catch average, which was good for 8th in the SEC in the 2020 season. However, some long plays with runs after the catch led to trouble and his average was very low in 2021. His longest catch at the NFL level has been just 28 yards.
Mechie has had a very reliable arm, including in college where he had a 74 percent catch rate. Although he dropped 15 passes, including eight in 2021, both focus and catching technique let him down at times.
At the NFL level, his catch rate is below 67 percent, although he has caught 14 of 15 targets this season. He only had a few drops.
Mechi can occasionally catch or bounce the ball with his body, and doesn’t have a lot of flashy highlight reel catches in his film, but can occasionally make some athletic diving catches.
Mechi can run a full route tree and is a technically proficient route runner who is balanced and can generate separation with sharp cuts.
He has the ability to make clean releases and change direction at once to lose his man in tight situations.
At the NFL level, Mechie only had one touchdown when joining the Jets, although he had two more since arriving. Two of these three were in the red zone, as was his only preseason touchdown.
In college, he scored 14 touchdowns in two years as a starter, although some of these were from outside the red zone. He has the ability to find holes in the defense and gain quick separation in tight areas.
Mecchi has some ability to run away from defensive players and speed to beat angles, as well as some good vision and elusiveness in space.
He failed twice in college.
Despite being undersized, Mechie enjoys blocking and gives good effort in the running game and getting some good blocks on receiver screens.
His only NFL regular season penalty was for offensive holding.
Mechi is a tenacious player who will work hard to earn the whistle and compete for the ball in traffic.
He gave a glimpse of his physical nature through this play when he was in college.
Special teams hasn’t been a big part of Mechi’s role so far in his career. At various times, he has been used as a blocker on kick return units, rush punts and cover kicks, including some snaps as a gunner. He had this tackle on kickoff coverage earlier this year:
He has limited experience returning kickoffs, but his longest return at any level was only 26 yards.
instinct and intelligence
Mechi has demonstrated versatility and his on-field instincts are sharp in terms of finding gaps in zone coverage and his vision and running in the open field.
He was on the SEC’s Fall Honor Roll in 2020.
Mechie is an absolute inspiration in terms of his courage and determination to overcome serious illness and injuries and return to the NFL level and seems to be a beloved teammate who exudes a team-first attitude. He won the NFL’s 2024 George Halas Award.
On the field, he has had just one penalty at the NFL level, although he had three in the preseason and four at the college level. In a recent game after being traded to the Jets, he got into a post-game skirmish with an opponent, so he has an edge on the competition.
Mechi appears to have fully recovered from his knee injury in college, which was a torn ACL, although he missed some time last season with a shoulder injury. He also suffered a hamstring problem in 2023 and an ankle problem in 2021, but did not miss much time beyond that.
In addition to recovering from cancer, Mechi was also diagnosed with a heart condition in high school, but doctors cleared him to continue playing.
As mentioned, Mechi is comfortable playing both inside and outside and is already settling in well into the Jets’ system. However, if Garrett Wilson returns this season his role could change to a slot-based role.
In college, he was teammates with current Jet Malachi Moore. He also played with Andrew Beck and Tyler Johnson in Houston. He has also been teammates with three injured Jets at the NFL level; Chris Boyd, Keelan Robinson and Byron Cowart.
We’ve already learned how Mechie could fit into the Jets system and he’s already establishing himself as someone they’ll want to bring back in 2026.
He is a pending restricted free agent, but it seems like he is the kind of player that will be tendered by the Jets as he could fit in well in their rotation next year, even if they bring in further pass catching reinforcements.
Mechi is easy to root for and it is heartening to see the success it has had so far. This is expected to continue beyond the 2025 season.
<a href=