While Las Vegas Raiders tight end Michael Mayer isn’t lighting up the scoreboard, he’s doing all the things that show up in the stats. Head coach Antonio Pierce made sure he got some well-earned recognition for it this week.
Rookie Brock Bowers is already one of the best tight ends in the league in spite of mediocre quarterback play from the Raiders. After general manager Tom Telesco failed to draft a quarterback this past April, Brock Bowers has more than lived up to the expectations placed on him. Indeed, the Silver and Black emerged with arguably the most exceptional offensive player in that class. Understandably, Mayer has largely gone under the radar, more so after taking time away from the team for undisclosed personal reasons.
The Raiders might still have something special in the Michael Mayer and Brock Bowers duo…
Opposing teams are fully aware that Bowers, in many ways, “is” the offense. Naturally, this means others need to step up—Mayer, for his part, is doing exactly that, putting in the grunt work that sometimes gets by Raiders fans. Pierce acknowledged that this week when addressing the media.
“When the opportunities come like they did last week, when they try to take away Brock early and we throw it to the open receiver, Mike’s giving up his body; you see him jumping, diving, doing all this stuff. I think just getting him going, keeping that confidence since he’s come back, getting him the ball, and feeding him. But he’s a tremendous talent. He’s always been one of my favorite players here when we drafted him, and the more we can get him going, the better we’ll be.”
Since his return to the playing field on November 17th against the Miami Dolphins, Mayer has slowly seen his involvement increase. Mayer saw nine targets last weekend, up from just seven in his first three games back. He responded in kind with seven receptions and 68 yards. However, as Coach Pierce alluded, Mayer is doing all the little things; he’s putting his body on the line.
“I like 12 personnel; that’s a really good grouping for us. So, the better we can get those two players, Mike and Brock, I think the more dangerous we are.”
With a handful of games left, it’ll be intriguing to see if the Raiders offense focuses on developing the two-tight-end sets that fans believed would be the norm prior to the regular season. Whoever takes over coaching this offense next year will have a solid duo in Mayer and Bowers to build around.
