After showing some flashes during his rookie season, Las Vegas Raiders tight end Michael Mayer took a step back in 2024.
That wasn’t at all surprising for a few reasons. Not only did Mayer miss a handful of games after leaving the team due to a personal issue, he was also overshadowed by Brock Bowers, who assumed the TE1 role right out of the gate.
Trade rumors have swirled around Mayer this offseason, but offensive coordinator Chip Kelly was adamant that there is a place for Mayer in the offense, even with Bowers emerging as a superstar at the position.
“There’s never a position anywhere where coaches say, ‘We have too many good players. … I checked: You can play two tight ends in a game at the same time,” he said. “And sometimes you can play three tight ends.”
Even Mayer has expressed optimism that he’ll have a big role in Kelly’s offense, with the Notre Dame product noting the team has been running a lot of 12- and even 13-personnel during the offseason.
“With me and Brock, it’s pretty interesting because we do a lot of 12-personnel stuff, and, you know, this spring we’ve also been doing a lot of 13-personnel too, which has been awesome,” Mayer explained.
“It’s been a lot of fun. So, I won’t speak any more to the 13-personnel, I’ll save that for the season, but I’ve got to be ready to do a lot of everything.”
Adding more to the idea that Mayer isn’t going to be an afterthought, Raiders beat writer Vincent Bonsignore of the Las Vegas Review-Journal recently said that it seems that Las Vegas has been trying to get him involved as much as possible throughout the offseason.
“And you fast forward to this year, and you look at what happened in OTAs, and you look at what happened in mini-camp, and the times that we were out there, I think it was five, six total practices that the media was allowed to watch,” Bonsignore said during an appearance on JT The Brick.
“It was really conspicuous how much Michael Mayer was involved in the passing game.”
Considering how Bowers is utilized out of the slot and even out wide sometimes, and with the relative lack of experience the Raiders have in their group of pass-catchers overall, there is absolutely room in the offense for Mayer to eat, even without using a ton of 12- and 13-personnel.
