The Raiders' selection of Georgia tight end Brock Bowers came as a small surprise on the first night of the 2024 NFL Draft.
That Bowers, inarguably the top player at his position in the draft, fell to Las Vegas at No. 13 was one wrinkle. That the Raiders picked a TE that high just one year after taking another, Michael Mayer, early in the second round was more shocking, and possibly redundant.
In his first comments since Bowers' selection, however, Mayer was unbothered by the Raiders adding another young tight end to the room. On the contrary, the former Notre Dame product is "excited" by the prospect of having a two-time John Mackey Award winner by his side.
"He's fast. He's got great hands. He can block. He can do it all. I feel like we can both do it all," Mayer told Vincent Bonsignore of the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Saturday. "I think we're gonna be dangerous. I think we're gonna have a great offense. That's kind of all I've got to say about it. It's going to be a lot of fun."
The third tight end taken in the 2023 NFL Draft behind Buffalo's Dalton Kincaid and Detroit's Sam LaPorta, Mayer had a much more understated first season in the pros than his fellow draftees. Whereas LaPorta and Kincaid finished second and fifth, respectively, in receptions among drafted players (86, 73), Mayer was less involved in Las Vegas' attack. The Raiders tight end finished with 27 catches for 304 yards (good for fourth on Las Vegas) and two scores in 14 games played.
Given his smaller role in the passing game, the new regime in charge and Bowers' pedigree out of Georgia, Mayer figures to slot as the second TE option this season, even in 12 personnel, which the Raiders ran just 14.2% of the time in 2023 (24th in the NFL), per Next Gen Stats. However, the second-year pass catcher sees an easy transition for both him and Bowers into Las Vegas' new TE-heavy reality.
"100 percent, 100 percent. Look, our whole job is to win ball games. As an offense, we need to score touchdowns, and that's what we're going to do to the best of our ability," Mayer told Bonsignore. "We can play a lot of 12 personnel, we can play a lot of 11, we've got a lot of weapons. I think you guys know that: We've got a lot of weapons.
"I already met Brock. I've been practicing with him for a week. He's a great guy, so it's been good."
Mayer's optimism jives with Bowers' comments earlier this month that Las Vegas will be hard to match up against "personnel-wise" with "two great tight ends."
With unknowns elsewhere on the Raiders' roster -- look no further than the impending quarterback competition between Aidan O'Connell and Gardner Minshew -- Las Vegas' tight ends feel they have a sure thing in their room.
