We apply the nuclear model with explicit mesons to photoproduction ofneutral pions off protons at the threshold. In this model the nucleons donot interact with each other via a potential but rather emit and absorbmesons that are treated explicitly on equal footing with the nucleons. We calculate the total cross section of the reaction for energies close tothreshold and compare the calculations with available experimental data. We show that the model is able to reproduce the experimental data anddetermine the range of the parameters where the model is compatible withthe experiment.